Mauritanian website Sahara Media says he has claimed responsibility for it in a video message.
An Ansar Dine rebel spokesman told a Mauritanian website they had made a "tactical withdrawal".
He was speaking in a video message carried by the Mauritanian website Sahara Media.
His arrest Friday was the result of joint efforts by the French and Mauritanian authorities, Sarkozy's office said.
Militants, who held the site for four days, had told a Mauritanian news agency they had seven foreign hostages.
The information, he said, had come from a captured Mauritanian mercenary - who had been fighting with pro-Gaddafi forces.
Mauritanian security authorities arrested Abdullah al-Senussi, Libya's former chief of intelligence and one of the Gadhafi regime's most wanted men.
Mauritanian website Sahara Media says Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the suspected organiser of the siege, has claimed responsibility for it in a video message.
BBC: Algeria crisis: Hostage-takers 'taken alive' at gas plant
He doesn't speak Mauritanian languages well, which is just fine by Marieme.
The Apple authorized dealership is owned by the ASML Group, a 100% Mauritanian business conglomerate, trading in construction, cement, dairy and technology.
That reality permeates every aspect of Mauritanian life from the dark-skinned boys who serve mint-flavored tea at restaurants to the clothes people wear.
While the ideological persuasions of the Mauritanian coup leaders are still unclear, the virulent Islamism that exists in the country should be cause for concern.
In a statement to the Mauritanian newswire Agence Nouakchott d'Information, the one-eyed Islamist leader allegedly said Thursday's attacks were conducted by militants from across the Sahara.
The government, local non-governmental organisations and the UN Programme for Development (UNDP) have been promoting the use of new biodegradable bags, the Mauritanian Information Agency reports.
The leader of the hostage-takers was a veteran fighter from Niger, named as Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri by the Mauritanian news agency ANI, which had been in contact with the militants.
This Shaykh held several positions in the Mauritanian courts, through which he attempted to abolish the man-made law in the country, and replace it with the Shari'a, which he accomplished somewhat.
The overthrow of Mauritanian president Maaouiy Ould Sid Ahmed Taya last month by a military junta calling itself the Council for Justice and Democracy passed almost without comment among Western observers.
Highlights of the festival include the award-winning La Vie Sur Terre (Life on Earth) by the talented Mauritanian director Abderahmane Sissako, who was commissioned to make a film about the year 2000.
The leader of the hostage-takers is said to be a veteran fighter from Niger, named as Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri by the Mauritanian news agency ANI, which has been in contact with the militants.
Woodside chief operating officer Keith Spence said the terms of the deal with the Mauritanian government, which remain confidential, were "fair, reflecting the need to support and encourage an emerging oil province in deepwater West Africa".
The militants, meanwhile, offered to trade two captive American workers for two terror figures jailed in the United States, according to a statement received by a Mauritanian news site that often reports news from North African extremists.
"Jihadist elements" are now deployed on several points along the frontier between the two sides, from the Mauritanian border in the west to the Douentza region in the east, Malian Defence Minister Col Yamoussa Camara told Radio France International.
Young women dream of marrying Mauritanian traders and herders, who can actually offer them a better life, and young men, at least with ones without good connections to the Polisario leadership, talk about earning money by helping drug smugglers and militant groups.
The prisoners are Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, who orchestrated the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani woman jailed in the United States on terrorism charges, the spokesman said in an interview with a private Mauritanian news agency.
Mr Ag Intalla told AP news agency the IMA was linked to neither al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) nor the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (Mujao), two groups which control large swathes of northern Mali and are led by an Algerian and a Mauritanian respectively.
He was actually on his way back from Saudi Arabia, where he had attended King Fahd's funeral, but he had to stop over here because it was very early in the morning that we heard reports of gunfire in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, and the fact that soldiers had taken over.
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