"The seven people...entered Turkey from the border with Iran at 3:00 am (0100 GMT) Friday and were taken in by local paramilitary troops," the ministry said in a written statement on its Internet site.

Officials were carrying out a comprehensive investigation, it added.

The seven people were kidnapped on November 11 near Baskale in the eastern province of Van, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the Iranian border, after they were stopped by rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Among the kidnapped were two members of the "village guard", a government-armed Kurdish militia supporting the army in the fight against the PKK rebels.

The Turkish army said at the time that the seven were kidnapped after they resisted an attempt by PKK rebels, referred to as a "terrorist organisation", to extort money.

Interior Minister Besir Atalay said last week that the kidnapped people were believed to have been taken to Iran and that Ankara had asked Tehran's help to find them.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community, has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Turkey has threatened a military incursion into neighbouring northern Iraq to crack down on PKK camps there.