LAGOS, Nigeria (AP):

Gunmen yesterday released two dozen Filipino sailors taken hostage in Nigeria's lawless southern oil-producing region which has been roiled by weeks of stepped-up violence and kidnap-pings, officials said. The Filipinos were with local officials in the southern port city of Warri and they were in good health, Delta State government spokesman Sheddy Ozoene said.

In Manila, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was "very pleased and relieved to hear this good news" about the release of the 24 Filipino sailors, presidential spokes-man Ignacio Bunye said.

It was unclear if Arroyo will lift the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Nigeria, which she imposed after the abductions.

Arroyo thanked the Nigerian government for its assistance in winning the release of the Filipinos.

Militants and copycat criminals have carried out a string of bombings and kidnappings of foreigners over the past year, violence that has cut crude production in Africa's biggest oil exporter by nearly a quarter.

Over the past month, strife has increased with more than 60 kidnappings since the beginning of the year _ most of them unrelated to the oil industry.

An e-mail message from the men's captors said several containers of explosives had been onboard the cargo ship. They gave no proof of their allegations, but said the men had been released on "humanitarian grounds without ransom."

Seven other foreigners, including one woman, remain in captivity.

The militants claim to be fighting for a more equitable distribution of oil revenues to fund development in the impoverished Niger Delta region. Most of the recent kidnappings appear to be nonpolitical and carried out by people seeking ransom.