Somali gunmen seized the acting Libyan ambassador and a colleague while they shopped in Mogadishu's busy Bakara market on Saturday but freed them hours later, embassy staff said.
The brief kidnapping coincided with the swearing in of 15 new ministers and five deputies by parliament as part of a new cabinet designed to help the interim government build solid institutions before elections due in late 2009.
Kidnapping was already common in Somalia before a year-long insurgency pitting Islamist militants against the government and its Ethiopian military backers broke out, triggering fighting that has killed at least 6,500 people.
Ten men armed with pistols grabbed acting Ambassador Naji Ahmed Subeyr and his chief of staff Fatahi Mohamed Mustafa as they shopped in the market, according to embassy officials.
Security guards at the Libyan embassy said the two envoys returned there later in good condition. No other details were immediately available. Bakara, the seaside Somali capital's biggest market, is a hotbed of insurgents fighting the Somali interim government and its Ethiopian military backers.
Kidnappings are common in Somalia, and captives are generally treated well because their captors consider them an investment for which they can earn a ransom. In the south-central trading town of Baidoa, where the Somali parliament still sits because of insecurity in Mogadishu, the bulk of a new cabinet was sworn in.
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