Paris ? Joy swept France with the release Tuesday in Iraq of two French reporters held hostage for four months. The government said Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot should be home for Christmas.

France’s upper house of parliament erupted with applause when Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told the senators that the militant Islamic Army in Iraq had freed the reporters.

Chesnot, 38, who works for Radio France Internationale, and Malbrunot, 41, a correspondent for the daily Le Figaro, were handed over to French authorities in Baghdad and were expected today in France, the French Foreign Ministry said.

The men were kidnapped Aug. 20 along with their Syrian driver on the road from Baghdad to Najaf. The driver, Mohammed al-Joundi, was freed in November but said they had been separated for a month.