"The hostage takers want 100 terrorists held in Algeria to be released in exchange for their hostages' release," he told AFP by phone. "The assailants have demanded these Islamists be driven to the North of Mali."
A spokesman for the Islamists told Mauritanian news agencies the attack was "in response to the flagrant interference of Algeria by authorising the use of its airspace by French planes to conduct raids against northern Mali".
It said the Algerian government's decision was "a betrayal of the blood of Algerian martyrs who fell under the bullet of the French colonialist".
18.45 Leon Panetta, the US defence secretary, has called the incident a "terrorist attack", while Victoria Nuland, the US state department's spokesman added:
Beyond confirming that there are Americans among the hostages, I will ask you to respect our decision not to get into any further details as we try to secure these people
18.35 Thirteen Norwegian employees of Statoil are involved in the hostage situation, according to Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister.
We've asked the Algerian authorities to put the life and health of the hostages above all.
18.21 Baki Mansour, referenced in this blog earlier, and who has been fairly on-point all day, claims that two have been killed - one Algerian and one British; and a further four injured - "1 British, 1 Norwegian, 2 Scottish". Presumably he means three British.
18.18 Dahou Ould Kablia, Algeria's interior minister, said there would be no negotiations with the hostage takers, as Algerian troops and helicopters surrounded the base.
"The authorities will not respond to any of the terrorists' demands and refuse all negotiation," he said on national television.
Some 150 local Algerian staff from the French firm CIS Catering are also being detained at the base after an attack by "around sixty" Islamists, the company CEO Régis Arnoux.
"I have 150 Algerian employees who have been given freedom of movement in the base unlike the foreign hostages who are shut up in a corner and not allowed to move. But (the Algerian employees) are not allowed to leave the base," he told AFP.
18.12 Alex Spillius, the Telegraph's diplomatic correspondent, has spoken to Telegraph TV about the ongoing situation. He says it is "too much of a coincident" that al-Qaeda linked militants have mounted this campaign while Mali is ongoing.
17.58 The Hague's International Criminal Court has meanwhile announced that it will formally open an investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Mali since January last year. Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said:
Since the beginning of the armed conflict in January 2012, the people of Northern Mali have been living in profound turmoil.
At each stage during the conflict, different armed groups have caused havoc and human suffering through a range of alleged acts of extreme violence. I have determined that some of these deeds of brutality and destruction may constitute war crimes as defined by the Rome Statute
17.56 BBC, citing Algeria's APS news agency, has revised the number of foreigners down to "slightly more than 20".
17.41 Algeria's APS news agency has now confirmed that the Algerian workers at the gas field have been released, citing local officials.
The report did not specify how many Algerians had been captured or released, saying only that Norwegians, French, Americans, Britons and Japanese were among those kidnapped near the In Amenas gas field, close to the Libyan border.
17.39 Francois Hollande, the president of France, has said he is liaising with the Algerian government over the attack.
As I am speaking to you, a hostage-taking is under way in Algeria at an energy facility, with a number of people taken hostage whose exact details we don't know, not even for the French nationals who may be involved.
I am in permanent contact with the Algerian authorities who are doing, and will do, their duty. We are also in contact with the heads of state of the countries concerned.
17.27 More of a running theme here. Mauritania's ANI news agency reports that the militants have been surrounded by security forces and warned that any attempt to free the hostages will have a "tragic end."
17.21 The White House has said it is "closely monitoring" the Algeria hostage situation. The al-Qaeda linked group claims seven Americans are among the hostages.
17.12 Henry Samuel has tweeted that one of the hostages has told France's Le Figaro newspaper that the militants have "mined" the gas plant. "The terrorists said they have mined the base", according to the unnamed woman, adding that they were armed with rocket propelled grenades.
17.10 Dr George Joffe from the University of Cambridge has told the BBC that he is surprised at the lax security at the facility.
"In a sense there is a long standing tension between Algeria and extremist groups. The attacks are a statement about those affiliations as much as they are about the Mali situation", he adds.
17.08 An Algerian blogger who goes by the pseudonym Baki 7our Mansour has claimed that the Jihadists have threatened to destroy the gas facility if they are not allowed back to Mali
16.59 Alex Spillius reports on the alleged involvement in the attack of Mokhtar Belmokhtar, a veteran terrorist in the region, who lost an eye in combat.
"We are members of al-Qaeda and we came from northern Mali. We belong to the Khaled Abul Abbas Brigade led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar," he added.
Khaled Abul Abbas is a pseudonym long used by Mokthar, an Algerian in his early 40s who trained in Afghanistan before returning home to take up the jihadist cause in the 1990s.
Previously dubbed as "uncatchable" by French intelligence, he is seen as something of a loose cannon within Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. In October jihadist websites reported that he had been dismissed from the command of AQIM in northern Mali.
At the time, AFP reported that Belmokhtar had acquired a reputation as a smuggling baron in the region that has earned him the nickname of "Mr Marlboro". Some fellow travellers questioned his commitment to the group's puritanical brand of Islam.
16.53 Professor Jeremy Keenan, has told BBC news that the hostage situation is most likely an "inside job".
16.49 Hocine Lamriben, a journalist in Algiers, claims that some of the Algerian hostages are being freed in small batches.
16.36 Henry Samuel tells us that according to the Algerian news website DNA, the Islamists have threatened to blow themselves up if the Algerian army launches an assault to free the hostages.
16.33 Downing Street has gone a bit further on the attack, saying "several" British citizens are involved, although they have not confirmed whether those are fatalities or kidnaps. David Cameron's spokesman said:
The ongoing incident has involved several British nationals.
We are working with BP to support the families of staff and are providing consular assistance. The Prime Minister will be speaking to his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal to discuss the situation.
The prime minister is due to speak to his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmalek Sellal, later today.
16.32 Emily Gosden has more on the make-up of those at the site. BP reportedly has fewer than 20 BP employees at the site, while Statoil has the same numbers. About 700 people maximum are believed to work there, but only about 300 at any one time - the majority are Algerian staff.
Statoil has confirmed that 13 of its employees are among those being held hostage.
16.22 Henry Samuel, our France correspondent, has more on the group behind the Algeria raid.
It said that five hostages are being held in the plant while 36 others are being held in the neighbouring "residential site".
The group's claim could not be independently substantiated and typically there would be fewer than 20 foreign staff members on site on a typical day, along with hundreds of Algerian employees.
The spokesman who phoned the Nouakchott agency said the kidnapping was carried out by "Those Who Signed in Blood," a group created to attack the countries participating in the ongoing offensive against Islamist groups in Mali.
He said the operation was to punish Algeria for allowing French jets attacking rebel groups in Mali to use its airspace.
Today's attack began with the ambush of a bus carrying employees from the gas plant to the nearby airport but the attackers were driven off, according to the Algerian government, which said three vehicles of heavily armed men were involved.
16.17 A spokesman for BP has said that the site was attacked and occuped by a group of unidentified armed people about 5am GMT.
Contact with the site is extremely difficult, but we understand that armed individuals are still occupying the In Amenas operations site.
Our absolute priority is the safety and security of our staff.The site is normally manned by staff and contractors from the joint venture. We do not yet have confirmed information on the status of personnel at the site but believe some are being held by the occupiers.
We are attempting to get confirmed information at the moment as to whether there have been any injuries to personnel at the site.
We do not have confirmed information on the identity or intention of the people occupying the site.
Algerian authorities are engaged with the incident. UK authorities, Norwegian and other governments have also been advised and are engaged. Algerian local authorities are working with the joint venture and with BP and Statoil.
BP has activated its emergency response system and is contacting relatives of its people on the site.
16.11 The group responsible for the raid has now in fact confirmed that the it was in retaliation to Algeria allowing France to use its air space for the attacks in Mali.
16.08 How much of this is blowback from the Mali crisis across the border? Rebel commanders warned earlier this week that France, by entering into the Mali conflict, had "opened the gates of hell".
16.04 Emily explains that a 2012 report by risk consultants Exclusive Analysis warned that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was likely to attack energy facilities in the Sahara within two years. Firas Abi Ali, deputy head of MENA Forecasting wrote:
The greatest expansion of terrorist activity [in Algeria] is occurring in the south and the border areas, where AQIM factions based in northern Mali, such as Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), can penetrate the provinces of Illizi, Adrar, Tindouf and Tamanrasset to conduct kidnap for ransom and attacks on Algerian security forces.
AQIM's southern factions, based near the borders with Mali and Niger, are growing stronger. They have kidnapped a number of Westerners and possess a proven vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) capability.
It is increasingly likely that they will attempt to push further north and attack Saharan energy facilities in the two-year outlook.
16.02 BP's safety standards are likely to come under scrutiny once again following the attack at its In Amenas gas field, says Emily Gosden, The Telegraph's Energy and Utilities reporter.
BP's safety procedures have been under intense scrutiny after a series of accidents including the Texas City refinery explosion in 2005, which killed 15 people, and the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, which killed 11 workers. BP was criticised for safety failings by investigations into both accidents.
15.59 Eamon Gilmore, Ireland's Tanaiste (deputy prime minister), has called for the immediate release of an Irish hostage.
The Government stands ready to use all the resources available to us to ensure that our citizen is released as soon as possible.
It is understood at least some of the captive workers were being kept in their own living quarters at the compound and were being allowed access to telephone and email.
The number and identities of the hostages was still unclear, but Ireland announced that a 36-year-old married Irish man was among them, while Japan and Britain said their citizens were involved as well. A Norwegian woman said her husband called her saying he had been taken hostage.
15.56 David Cameron will chair a meeting of the Government's Cobra crisis committee on the incident later on today.
15.55 Here's what we know so far: The natural gas complex, the third largest in the country, is a joint venture of BP, Norway's Statoil and the Algerian Sonatrach company located some 800 miles south of the capital near the Libyan border.
The Algerian Interior Ministry said heavily armed gunman in three vehicles attacked the complex early on Wednesday morning.
Militants have claimed the attack is in revenge for Algeria's support of France's intervention against rebels in Mali.
15.48 Algeria's official APS news agency said:
A second person, a British national, died in the terrorist attack carried out early on Wednesday morning in Tigantourine.
15.45 GMT Good afternoon and welcome to our live coverage of the attack on a BP complex in Algeria, in which a Briton is reported among two foreigners killed.
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