SHANGHAI, Apr. 26 -- Ethiopia's Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is holding several Chinese workers kidnapped in an attack on Tuesday, said yesterday they will hand them over to a "proper institution" and treat them humanely, the Southeast Express reported today.

Abderaman Mahdi, a spokesman for the group, said in London that they don't want to keep these workers as hostages and will pass them to a "proper organization."

The group claimed responsibility for the attack on a Chinese-run oil field in Ethiopia on Tuesday in which, according to Mahdi, seven Chinese were killed and six were seized. The official figures show nine Chinese killed and seven kidnapped.

Ethiopian troops are searching for the group whose raid on the oilfield in the country's Somali state killed a total of 74 people.

The rebels said in a statement on their Website yesterday that 400 Ethiopian troops were killed or wounded in the attack. It said the Chinese fatalities were the result of explosions caused by ammunition blowing up during the battle.

The statement added that the oil field was attacked because ethnic Somalis were driven from their land by Ethiopian troops.

The oil field is being developed by the Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau under the China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.

The rebel group is reportedly made up of Ethiopia's minority Somalis and has been linked to Eritrea, which fought a border war with Ethiopia in 2000.

The Ethiopian government has dispatched two planes to carry Chinese workers wounded in the attack and the bodies of the nine Chinese killed to the Ethiopian capital, before they are repatriated to China, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.

Negotiations were under way to win the release of the hostages, and all Chinese staff were being evacuated, said Sun Qing, a Chinese embassy spokeswoman.

The attack by more than 200 rebel fighters lasted about an hour and followed a warning the rebels made last year against any investment in eastern Ethiopia's Ogaden area.

The rebels are trying to create an independent state for ethnic Somalis.