LAGOS (AFP) -- A Frenchman kidnapped in Nigeria's southern oil capital Port Harcourt more than a month ago was released early Friday, an industry source said, after the freeing of two Italians 24 hours earlier.

Gerard Laporal, a logistics expert aged around 60, was the last foreigner remaining in captivity in the Niger Delta region.

Married to a Nigerian woman, he was working under local contract for French oil group Total at the time of his abduction February 8.

The conditions of his release were not immediately known.

Laporal was picked up by armed men as he was returning home late at night, alone in his car which was found a few hundred meters (yards) from his home a few days later.

Contact was made with the kidnappers a week after he was seized.

Total made no statement during his detention but was "working very hard for his release," an official of the multinational oil giant told AFP a few days ago.

It was the first time a Frenchman had been seized in the oil-rich south of Nigeria.

Friday's release came a day after that of two Italians working for Italian oil company Agip by the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which is active in the region.

The two men had been held by MEND since December 7.

ENI, which owns Agip, said in a statement that no ransom had been paid for Cosma Russo and Franco Arena.

Since the beginning of 2006, when kidnapping increased sharply in southern Nigeria's oil-producing region, well over 100 foreigners have been seized.

Most have been linked to the oil industry and have been released unharmed within a few weeks.

MEND, which has often claimed responsibility for the abductions, says it wants a fairer distribution of Nigeria's oil wealth.

It threatened to seize other hostages to "replace" Russo and Arena and to increase its attacks on the oil industry and on the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo, who will step down at the end of May. The group threatened to seize more hostages from oil installations "thought to be secure" to "dispel the false sense of wellbeing gradually building up in the oil industry."

It also warned it might use car bombs.

The MEND statement challenged assurances given Monday by Obasanjo when he met Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome.

Obasanjo said Nigeria's government was "fully prepared and able" to provide adequate security for oil workers and installations in the volatile Delta.

Russo and Arena were abducted along with a third Italian, Roberto Dieghi, and Lebanese national Imad Saliba.

Dieghi was freed in mid-January, while Saliba escaped last month.

Reduced output due to unrest cost Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer, some $4.4 billion (3.3 billion euros) last year, according to official sources.