MOGADISHU - Suspected pirates have freed two German hostages kidnapped in June from a yacht off the Gulf of Aden, a local governor said Saturday.

The hostages were released Friday night from a hideout in a mountainous area near Puntland, a semiautonomous region of northern Somalia, said Muse Geele Yusuf, the governor of Bari region.

"Two German hostages have been released,'' Yusuf told The Associated Press by telephone. He said a $1 million ransom was paid, but it was not clear by whom.

Details of the release were sketchy. At the time of the kidnapping, officials said a German couple was seized along with their young son; German officials subsequently have said no child was kidnapped.

Kidnappings and piracy are on the rise in Somalia, where hijackers demand _ and often receive _ huge ransoms. The 3,025-kilometre coast is the longest in Africa.