French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged Tuesday that his country would "spare no effort" in attempts to free two French journalists held hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

"We will spare no effort to get them out of the situation in which they find themselves," Sarkozy said during a press conference in Washington, where he was attending a summit on nuclear security.

Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponier were named for the first time over the weekend at the request of their families after they appeared in an apparent Taliban video distributed to various Western media.

Both journalists, who work for the France 3 television network, were kidnapped in December 2009 along with their translator, an editorial fixer and a driver on a road in eastern Afghanistan.

"I will wait until we have succeeded in freeing them before I say what I think about the practice of holding hostages and forcing them to speak before the cameras," Sarkozy said Tuesday.

But the French leader said he "was in agreement with the distribution" of the video of the two journalists.