Italian National Kidnapped In Nigeria - 

Italian Foreign Ministry!

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man has been kidnapped in the Niger delta in southern Nigeria, the Italian foreign ministry said on Saturday.

Marcello Rizzo, 55, from the Sicilian town of Randazzo, works for the Italian construction company Gitto Costruzioni and has been in Nigeria for eight years.

"We have had some contacts and we hope we will see a positive conclusion," a foreign ministry spokesman said, without specifying who the contacts were. "We were informed of his disappearance several days ago."

Kidnappings in southern Nigeria tend to be for ransom and the victims are often released. Abductions in the north are more often the work of Islamist militant groups linked to al Qaeda.