A Somali armed group that kidnapped a Japanese woman and a Dutch man working for a French medical charity in Ethiopia on Wednesday demanded three million dollars to release their hostages.

The pair were working for Medecins du Monde when they were snatched in September. They were later transferred to Mogadishu and their captors had initially demanded the release of Somalis detained in Ethiopia.

`We had demanded from the Ethiopian government that our brothers inside its jails be freed. Our demand was not met so we are now asking for three million dollars for the release of the hostages,` the group`s leader and spokesman Kulan Farah told AFP, speaking on the phone from an undisclosed location.

`We need the money to help release our men inside Ethiopian jails and this is a second chance we are offering,` he said, adding that the hostages were in good health and well treated.

Ethiopian government forces have carried out devastating military operations in the Ogaden, a large southeastern region populated by ethnic Somalis where groups have been fighting for independence.

Armed Somali gangs have carried out scores of kidnappings in recent months, often targeting either foreigners or Somalis working with international organisations to demand ransoms.

The latest to fall in kidnappers` hands were a group of four foreigners -- two French, a Belgian and a Bulgarian -- along with their two Kenyan pilots.

They were seized by gunmen who stormed an airstrip in Dhusa Mareb, an area near the Ethiopian border through which the Japanese and Dutch hostages transited before being brought to Mogadishu.