Four French captured in September by al Qaeda militants in Niger has been shown in a video calling on France to leave Afghanistan.
The four give the same message that President Nicolas Sarkozy should take the French troops of the international peacekeeping force.
The militants can be seen training their gun barrels as they talk
Two men and a woman abducted with them in the uranium mining town Arlit were released in January.
It is believed that the hostages are being held in secret camps in the deserts of neighboring Mali.
France said it would not negotiate after the group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), demanded a ransom of 90m euros (80 million pounds, $ 131 million).
Security experts say that AQIM has previously collected millions of dollars in ransom payments, notes Reuters.
"It is not dictated by the hijackers"
Niger Map
The video, posted on Islamist web forums, shows images of four men, Pierre Legrand, Larriba Daniel, Dol-Thierry and Marc Furrer.
His words are contained in an audio message played on the frames and said recordings were made on 11, 12 and 13 April.
In Paris, Laurent Wauquiez, the Secretary of State for European Affairs, said: "The first thing to do is analyze the video and above all ensure that demonstrates the hostages are alive.
"Secondly, we are doing, and I mean everything we can to get the hostages released. As you can imagine, the French foreign policy is not dictated by the kidnappers."
Hostage-taking in September were working, either for the French nuclear energy firm Areva and the French construction company Vinci.