Taliban say checking if French reporter a spy

ISLAMABAD, Oct 10 (Reuters) Taliban ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said today the movement was investigating whether a French reporter arrested in Afghanistan a day earlier while disguised in Muslim womens clothing was a spy.

"A french (man) has been arrested but I dont know if he is a journalist or a spy," Zaeef told a news conference.

"As you know, the french earlier announced they sent some spies into Afghanistan so the investigation is under way to prove that." Michel Peyrard, 44, a reporter for the french weekly Paris Match, had a satellite telephone, tape recorder and "Other spying instruments" when he was detained yesterday near the city of Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, reports said.

Fellow journalists in Peshawar said Peyrard had told them he planned to slip into Afghanistan, which the ruling Taliban closed to foreign reporters after the September 11 attacks on the world trade center and the Pentagon in the United States.