By Estelle Shirbon ABUJA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - An Italian hostage held with three colleagues in the creeks of Nigeria's oil producing Niger Delta said on Wednesday the captives were in good health but were worried about how long it was taking to get them out. The four oil industry workers, three Italians and one Lebanese, were abducted last Thursday during a raid on the Italian firm Agip's Brass oil export terminal by militants from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). "All of us are well," Francesco Arena told Reuters in the early hours, in a telephone call arranged by a MEND spokesman. "We are worried because the negotiations are lasting a long time ... We are here, in the jungle, we've been here for six days already," he said. Asked whether he knew for sure that the kidnappers were negotiating and with whom, he said: "No idea. We don't know anything." Arena said the militants had not told the hostages what their demands were. He said the four men were being held in a tent in a place he didn't know in the creeks of the Niger Delta, an impenetrable region almost the size of England. They were guarded by many men armed with AK-47 rifles and other firearms, who were otherwise treating them well, Arena said. Kidnappings for ransom are frequent in the delta, where poverty and lawlessness fuel crime and militancy. But the MEND has said it did not want money and would release the men only if the Nigerian government met some of its demands. These are the release of two jailed leaders from the delta, compensation to villagers for oil spills, transfer of control of oil resources from the government to local communities, and reparation for 50 years of "enslavement" by the oil industry. CHRISTMAS PHONE CALLS The MEND spokesman said on Monday the militants would allow the hostages one phone call each to their families on Christmas Day, and then no more until they were released. Arena asked that a message be passed to the families of the hostages to say they were all fine. The MEND has kidnapped foreign oil workers several times this year. In the group's longest hostage taking, two Americans and one Briton were kept for five weeks before being released unharmed on March 27. Almost all hostages in the delta are released unharmed after money changes hands, though one Briton and one Nigerian were killed this year in separate, botched attempts by troops to release them. The MEND's attack on the Brass terminal, which exports 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil, came at an embarrassing time for the Nigerian government which is hosting a meeting of OPEC ministers in the faraway capital Abuja. The militants threatened more attacks to follow up on the raid but have yet to carry out their threat. Agip's parent company, Eni <ENI.MI>, has said operations at Brass were unaffected by last Thursday's attack. The MEND spokesman said the attackers had intended to blow up the facility but had forgotten to take a detonator. He said they would return to finish the job. MEND, a faceless group which emerged in late 2005, launched a series of attacks on oil facilities in February that forced the closure of over 500,000 bpd, or a fifth of crude oil output capacity from Nigeria, the world's eighth-biggest exporter.
