Nigeria gunmen seize top managers

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Gunmen have blasted their way into a residential compound to snatch three top managers working for an Asian-owned company in Nigeria's Niger Delta.

Some sources say more hostages may have been seized in the dawn raid as the three were taken with family members.

The attackers were armed with machine guns and explosives, said police commissioner Felix Ogbaudu.

Newly sworn-in President Umaru Yar'Adua has convened a summit for next week about the crisis in the oil-rich area.

Militants have waged a sabotage campaign for more than a year in the under-developed region, including kidnapping dozens of foreign oil workers.

Their activities have led to a more than 25% cut in oil production.

Criminal gangs in the region have used similar tactics to obtain ransoms for the release of captives.

Worker protests

"We are not sure of the nationalities of the hostages, but we think they are Asians," Mr Ogbaudu told the BBC.

<a class="" href="/1/hi/world/africa/6644097.stm">The shadowy militants in Nigeria's Delta</a>

The managing director, general manager and manager of security were taken from the residential compound of Indorama, an Indonesian chemical firm working in Nigeria's southern oil capital, Port Harcourt.

This latest kidnapping is the second attack on the company in two weeks.

Indorama employees are now refusing to work in protest about the seizure of their colleagues and have forced the company to close down its operations.

On 19 May, two Indians were abducted from the first attack on the compound located on the outskirts of Port Harcourt.

Friday's attack comes shortly after the main militant group in the region, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) said it was willing to end its armed campaign for "genuine" dialogue with the new government.

President Yar'Adua, who at his inauguration this week promised to make the Niger Delta a priority, has convened a "Niger Delta Summit" to begin the quest for a solution to the violence.

Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer and fifth largest exporter of crude to the US.

Although the bulk of the oil comes from the swamps of the Niger Delta, the region remains deeply impoverished, a reason often given by the militants for the actions.

Some 180 foreigners - most of them oil workers - have been kidnapped in the region in the past 18 months.

The hostages are usually released unharmed after ransom payments that both the government and the oil workers always deny.