LAGOS - A Lebanese worker taken hostage for 16 days in Nigeria's oil-rich but restive Niger Delta said he was treated badly by his captors, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

Daniel Khouri, a construction worker with Homan Engineering who was abducted in the southern city of Port Harcourt on August 16 was released on Friday.

"The experience was bad. They were beating me because of bad negotiation. They demanded 50 million naira from me but I could not give them and they beat me," The Nation newspaper quoted him as saying.

He said they fed him only on milk, water and bread for 16 days and would not allow him to have a bath.

But when asked if he wanted to leave Nigeria because of his experience, Khouri said: "Of course I will remain in Nigeria. Nigeria is nice and I will even work in Delta State."

Khouri was on his way to work when he was seized by gunmen and taken to an unknown destination.

A day after the kidnapping an unidentified caller demanded a 50 million naira (390,000 dollars, 304,000 euros) ransom for his release, but the company said it refused the demand.

Oil companies operating in the oil-rich but restive Niger delta are believed to pay ransoms regularly to kidnappers in exchange for their employees' release but none has ever publicly admitted doing so.

President Olusegun Obasanjo last month warned companies and individuals who paid ransoms to kidnappers that they would be treated as accomplices of the criminals.

At least 40 expatriates, mostly oil workers, have been kidnapped and later released unharmed this year as Niger Delta militants intensify a campaign for a larger share of Nigeria's oil revenues.

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