Twenty-five workers from a Chinese cement factory in Egypt's Sinai region were kidnapped Tuesday by a local tribe who demanded the authorities free their fellow tribesmen from prison, while the Chinese government still struggles to rescue workers trapped in the Republic of Sudan.

Zhang Zhizhong, director of Consular Affairs at the Chinese embassy in Egypt, told the Global Times on the phone that 24 Chinese workers returning from their hometowns after Spring Festival vacation were being held captive by Bedouin in the city of el-Arish.

Working at a construction project with a cement factory based in Tianjin, the workers were on their way back to the construction site when they were abducted by local Bedouins at 11:40 am local time, Zhang said.

"The Chinese workers are being held in a tent near a road where the Bedouins had set up a block during the past few days to press their demand to free their fellow tribesmen. Currently, the workers are safe and the Bedouins have not harmed them," Zhang said.

"The Chinese ambassador to Egypt has met with officials with the security bureau under the Interior Ministry after the embassy was informed of the incident, and the ambassador has asked Egyptian authorities to ensure the safety of the Chinese workers," Zhang said, adding that Egyptian authorities also promised during the meeting to take action immediately.

"Egyptian authorities have summoned the leader of the tribe and their only and primary demand for the release of the Chinese hostages is to free those Bedouin prisoners," Zhang said, adding that the embassy was closely watching the incident.

"We will not release the Chinese until our demand for the release of these sons of Sinai are met," said one of the Bedouin who wanted to remain anonymous, Reuters reported.

The prisoners the Bedouin wanted free were arrested between 2004 and 2006 as part of an investigation into bombings at the Taba resort on Sinai's Red Sea coast where 31 people were killed, Reuters reported.

Separately, the foreign ministry called for the immediate release of 29 Chinese construction workers held by Sudanese rebels, while a team has been dispatched to the African country for the rescue work amid in-creasing concerns over Chinese nationals' safety overseas.

"China urges relevant parties to remain calm and restrained, ensure the safety of Chinese personnel and quickly release Chinese personnel out of humanitarian concerns," the ministry's spokesman Liu Weimin said Tuesday.

Liu said officials from the ministry and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council departed for Sudan on Monday evening to assist in rescue work.

The 29 workers from Sinohydro Group were captured by the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) in South Kordofan state on Saturday while 17 other workers were brought to a safe location by the Sudanese army after their camp was stormed by the rebels. One worker fled while 17 other workers from the camp are still missing.

The Sudanese army has been fighting the SPLM-N in South Kordofan near the border with the newly independent country of South Sudan.

Denying that Chinese workers were being held as hostages, the rebels said that they were indirect victims of fighting with government troops.

"They are okay. They are doing well," said SPLM-N's spokesman Arnu Ngutulu Lodi, according to AFP. "We are very concerned about their security and safety."

A man surnamed Hou from Nanchong, Sichuan Province, whose girlfriend is among the 17 detainees in Sudan, told the Global Times that he had lost contact with her after their last phone call on Saturday, and later learned from the news that she and her colleagues were being held by Sudanese rebels.

"She told me on the phone that she had been given approval for a short leave to come back home for Spring Festival on Saturday, but I couldn't reach her on her cellphone later in the day," Hou told the Global Times Tuesday.

Hou's 24-year-old girlfriend, who has been working as a translator with Sinohydro Group in Sudan for two years, was working on a reported $63.2 million road project funded by the Export-Import Bank of China.

"We were a little bit worried about her safety before she left, but when she settled down in Sudan, she told us that the country is really safe compared to other African countries," Hou said, adding that the company his girlfriend works with only hired local police to protect them during the Sudan independence referendum last year.

With Chinese companies becoming involved in increasing investments in emerging nations, the safety of Chinese nationals overseas has drawn growing attention from the public after the government's massive evacuation of tens of thousands of Chinese citizens trapped in Libya when fighting broke out there early last year.

Agencies contributed to this story

25 Chinese workers held by Egyptian locals freed