BASRA (Iraq) - SECURITY forces have launched a search for two journalists from the American television network CBS who were kidnapped at gunpoint from their hotel in the Iraqi city of Basra, an official said on Tuesday.

'There is an intensive operation underway to find the journalists,' interior ministry spokesman Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf said.

'These are journalists doing their job and those common criminals must be brought to justice.'

Witnesses said the journalists were led away from the Palace Sultan Hotel in the southern city of Basra at gunpoint by a gang of about 10 gunmen on Sunday after having booked in the previous day.

A number of Iraqi and foreign journalists have been kidnapped in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, regarded as the most dangerous country in the world for media workers.

The Palace Sultan hotel was surrounded on Tuesday by police who restricted movement into and out of the premises.

'(On Sunday) a group of about 10 men in civilian clothes arrived at the hotel during the day and made inquiries about who was staying there,' said a hotel staff member who asked not to be identified.

'They returned later in a SUV. They were armed,' the staff member said, adding that the two journalists were taken away at gunpoint and that the abductors had been masked.

The US network confirmed in a statement that two of its journalists have gone missing in Basra but gave no other details.

The movement of radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr condemned the abductions.

'We denounce and condemn the abduction of journalists all over Iraq in general and in Basra in particular,' the Basra wing of the movement said in a statement.

'We ask the abductors to release the journalists.'

The association of Iraqi journalists also condemned the kidnapping and appealed to their captors to release the two men.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm.

'We are deeply concerned for the safety of our colleagues, and hope they are located swiftly and able to resume their important work covering this critical story,' said the committee's executive director Joel Simon.

'Iraq is the most dangerous country in the world for journalists and the deadliest conflict for the press in recent history. Journalists face incalculable risks in order to bring us the news about what is happening on the ground there.'

The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said at least 208 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since March 2003.

Most are Iraqis who are killed by insurgent groups or militias angered by their coverage or ideologically opposed to their employers. Others have died when caught in crossfire.

Some Westerners have been abducted and later released, among them US freelancer Jill Carroll who was kidnapped in January 2006, French journalist Florence Aubenas who was taken in January 2005 and Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena who was nabbed in February 2005.

Basra was handed over to Iraqi control mid-December by British forces, who are now based at a nearby airport. -- AFP