**Somali Islamists have issued a set of demands for the release of a French security advisor they seized in July.**Al-Shabab say they will free the man if France stops its support for the weak UN-backed government and end its anti-piracy patrols in Somali waters.
The group also wants African Union peacekeepers withdrawn from Mogadishu.
Another French security advisor captured on the same day managed to get free last month and is now in France. He denies reports a ransom was paid.
France has not yet responded to the demands.
Somalia has not had a functioning central government since 1991.
Rival Islamist factions are battling forces loyal to the government, which controls only small parts of the capital Mogadishu.
Al-Shabab are said to have links to al-Qaeda, and to have been reinforced with foreign fighters.