CAIRO (AFP) -- Egypt renewed efforts on Tuesday to free 19 people including European tourists kidnapped in the remote desert and taken to Sudan, after Cairo went back on an official statement that they had been freed.

""Egyptian efforts are ongoing to release the abducted tourists,"" MENA news agency quoted an unnamed official as saying after Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said in New York that all 19 had been freed ""safe and sound.""
While Egypt is not negotiating directly with the hostage takers, Tourism Minister Zuhair Garana has said they want millions of dollars in ransom.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki said that Abul Gheit's words ""were inexact,"" dashing hopes of a swift end to the drama as security forces combed the desert for any trace of the group.
""Information from Egypt indicates that the situation is unchanged,"" MENA quoted him as saying about the fate of the European tourists and their Egyptian guides, drivers and a guard, snatched at gunpoint in the desert on Friday.
Five Italians and five Germans were among those kidnapped, but the Italian and German embassies in Cairo both said they were trying to confirm reports of the release. A Romanian is also being held.
Abul Gheit said the captives were freed near the Libyan-Sudanese-Egyptian border, after masked gunmen attacked their group of four off-road vehicles in one of the most isolated parts of the Sahara desert on Friday.
""Four masked gunmen attacked four vehicles affiliated to a tourist company. They kidnapped the tourists and led them to the Sudanese lands,"" MENA quoted the ministry as saying.
Authorities only became aware of the kidnapping when the tour company owner, who is among the missing, used a satellite telephone to call his German wife and tell her of the ransom demand.
The tourism ministry said those snatched were five Germans, five Italians and a Romanian, as well as two Egyptian guides, four drivers, a guard and the tour company owner.
MENA said the tour company operator had called his wife late on Monday to tell her the group was ""safe and sound.""
German authorities were in touch with the group, Tourism Minister Garana said, adding that they had asked for a ransom of between eight and 15 million dollars.