World oil prices fell yesterday after rebels in key energy producer Nigeria freed a three-year old British girl. The kidnapping last week of Margaret Hill, along with US supply concerns, had pushed oil prices to near 11-month highs on Friday, above 76 dollars a barrel in London.

In early trading yesterday, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery shed 56 cents to 75.06 dollars in London.

New York?s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, lost 62 cents to 72.19 dollars.

Hill was back with her relieved parents yesterday after being freed by kidnappers in southern Nigeria, but three more foreigners were seized in the oil producing region.

The girl was covered in mosquito bites after her release on Sunday and ?in a bit of a daze? but otherwise unharmed, her father Mike Hill said. Police and the parents insisted no ransom was paid. As the Hill family celebrated in the country?s oil capital of Port Harcourt, Nigerian television reported that armed men had kidnapped three foreigners, believed to be Lebanese or Chinese, from a compound in the city.

More than 200 foreigners, mostly oil workers or members of their families, have been abducted in the Niger Delta since January, 2006.

Hill was seized by gunmen last Thursday as she was being dropped off at school. Her father works in the oil industry.

CRISIS

Nigerian rebels disown girl abduction and vow attacks

■ The main rebel group in Nigeria?s oil-producing Niger Delta said yesterday the abduction of a 3-year-old British girl was unrelated to political violence and the armed struggle over oil revenues would continue. Margaret Hill was released on Sunday night after four days in the hands of unknown ransom seekers who snatched her from the car in which she was being driven to school on July 5 in Port Harcourt, the delta?s main city.

?This criminal act against a minor was perpetrated by common thieves and even as they have released the child, I promise you their punishment is unspeakable,? said the rebel Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND).

?This incident changes nothing amongst the groups truly agitating for resource control in the Niger Delta,? said the group?s spokesman, who uses the pseudonym Jomo Gbomo.

Abductions of adult expatriates are so frequent in the Niger Delta that they rarely make headlines in Nigerian newspapers, but the kidnapping of Margaret Hill drew outrage from the government as well as from politically motivated armed groups. About 200 foreigners have been snatched in the delta since the start of 2006, of whom at least 14 are still being held. A small number of these abductions were carried out by the MEND and other rebel groups seeking to press their demand for impoverished delta communities to gain power over oil revenues that they regard as their birthright.

But in the vast majority of cases, the kidnappers were ransom seekers. Both the government and the rebels condemn the commercialisation of hostage takings. Local activists said the case of Margaret Hill had further strengthened an existing consensus among genuine militants that abductions for ransom had spiralled out of control. ?This has really put moral pressure to bring the hostage takings to a manageable level,? said Oyeinfie Jonjon of the Ijaw Youth Council, which campaigns for the rights of the delta?s most populous ethnic group. ?This trend of people taking hostages to enrich themselves has to be resisted. We will make sure that we will police the Niger Delta because there is nothing the government can do,? he told Reuters by telephone from the delta.

President Umaru Yar?Adua, who took power on May 29 promising urgent efforts to quell violence in the delta, has recognised that lack of development and job opportunities in the region were at the root of the crisis. The stakes are high for the Nigerian government because rebel attacks on oil facilities have cut Nigeria?s output by over 20 percent. Oil is the country?s economic lifeline. Yar?Adua and his deputy Goodluck Jonathan, who originates from the delta, have made overtures to the rebels and set up a Peace and Reconciliation Committee.