President Sarkozy has sparked anger at home after blaming two French reporters for being kidnapped in Afghanistan last month.

While uncertainty still surrounds the fate of the pair, who work at France Television, the state network, Mr Sarkozy attacked them for ignoring military advice not to venture out alone in Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul. He also ordered ministers to tell the public how much it would eventually cost to rescue them. The two are thought to have been taken hostage by the Taliban.

The two men, experienced war correspondents who have not been publicly named, were seized along with two Afghan assistants and a driver on December 30 about 80 miles north of the Afghan capital, while preparing a report for the France 3 channel on the construction of a road there. They disappeared a few miles from a nearby French army base, which is part of the Nato Afghan operation.

Mr Sarkozy’s anger, relayed by Claude Guéant, his chief of staff, broke with the President’s usual show of concern over French nationals kidnapped abroad. The President thought that the pair had behaved with “a culpable lack of care” in venturing into a zone in which Taliban insurgents and other hostile elements were present, Mr Guéant said.

“You don’t go for a scoop at any price. They are making a lot of our armed forces run risks, distracting them from their main mission in Afghanistan,” he added.

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