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* Six militants captured alive
* Hostage death toll rises to 48
* France, Britain defend Algerian response
* Algeria says gas plant to restart in two days
By Lamine Chikhi
ALGIERS, Algeria, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Algerian troops found25 bodies of hostages at a bomb-littered gas plant deep in theSahara desert on Sunday, a day after ending a four-day siege, asecurity source said, raising the death toll of militants andtheir captives to at least 80.
Around 30 foreigners - including American, British, French,Japanese, Norwegian and Romanian citizens - are among thosemissing or confirmed dead after the siege, one of the worstinternational hostage crises in decades.
Algeria had given a preliminary death toll of 55 peoplekilled - 23 hostages and 32 militants - on Saturday and said itwould rise as more bodies were found.
The security source said that toll did not include the 25bodies found on Sunday, which meant the total number of hostageskilled - foreign and local - was at least 48. The search was notover, and more could yet be found, he said.
He also said six militants were captured alive, includingtwo found hiding on Sunday. Troops were still searching forothers. Earlier, the authorities had said all the fighters hadbeen killed.
Among foreigners confirmed dead by their home countries werethree Britons, one American and two Romanians. The missinginclude at least 10 Japanese, five Norwegians, three otherBritons, and a British resident. The security source said atleast one Frenchman was also among the dead.
Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal is expected to release moredetails at a news conference on Monday.
One-eyed veteran Islamist fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimedresponsibility on Sunday for the attack on behalf of al Qaeda.
"We in al Qaeda announce this blessed operation," he said ina video, according to Sahara Media, a regional website. He saidabout 40 attackers participated in the raid, roughly matchingthe government's figures for fighters killed and captured.
The fighters swooped out of the desert and seized the baseon Wednesday, capturing a plant that produces 10 percent ofAlgeria's natural gas exports, as well as a nearby residentialbarracks.
They demanded an end to French air strikes against Islamistfighters in neighbouring Mali that had begun five days earlier.However, U.S. and European officials doubt such a complex raidcould have been organised quickly enough to have been conceivedas a direct response to the French military intervention.
The siege turned bloody on Thursday when the Algerian armyopened fire saying fighters were trying to escape with theirprisoners. Survivors said Algerian forces blasted several trucksin a convoy carrying both hostages and their captors.
Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreignersescaped, mainly on Thursday when the fighters were driven fromthe residential barracks. Some captors remained holed up in theindustrial complex until Saturday when they were overrun.
The bloodshed has strained Algeria's relations with itsWestern allies, some of whom have complained about being left inthe dark while the decision to storm the compound was beingtaken. Nevertheless, Britain and France both defended theAlgerian military action.
"It's easy to say that this or that should have been done.The Algerian authorities took a decision and the toll is veryhigh but I am a bit bothered ... when the impression is giventhat the Algerians are open to question," said French ForeignMinister Laurent Fabius. "They had to deal with terrorists."
British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a televisedstatement: "Of course people will ask questions about theAlgerian response to these events, but I would just say that theresponsibility for these deaths lies squarely with theterrorists who launched this vicious and cowardly attack.
"We should recognise all that the Algerians have done towork with us and to help and coordinate with us. I'd like tothank them for that. We should also recognise that the Algerianstoo have seen lives lost among their soldiers."
LAST WORDS?
Alan Wright, now safe at home in Scotland, said he hadescaped with a group of Algerian and foreign workers afterhiding for a day and a night. While hiding inside the compound,he managed to call his wife at home with their two daughters.
"She asked if I wanted to speak to Imogen and Esme, and Icouldn't because I thought, I don't want my last ever words tobe in a crackly satellite phone, telling a lie, saying you're OKwhen you're far from OK," he recalled to Sky News.
Despite the incident, Algeria is determined to press on withits energy industry. Oil minister Youcef Yousfi visited the siteand said physical damage was minor, state news service APSreported. The plant would start back up in two days, he said.
The Islamists' assault has tested Algeria's relations withthe outside world and exposed the vulnerability of multinationaloil operations in the Sahara.
Algeria, scarred by the civil war with Islamist insurgentsin the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, insisted from thestart of the crisis that there would be no negotiation in theface of terrorism.
France especially needs close cooperation from Algeria to crush Islamist rebels in northern Mali.
French troops in Mali advanced slowly on Sunday towards thetown of Diably, a militant stronghold the fighters abandoned onSaturday after punishing French attacks.
The apparent ease with which guerrillas swooped in from thedesert to take control of an important energy facility hasraised questions over the country's outwardly tough securitymeasures. Yousfi said Algeria would not allow foreign securityfirms to guard its oil facilities.
Algerian officials said the attackers may have had insidehelp from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site.
Security in the half-dozen countries around the Saharadesert has long been a preoccupation of the West. Smugglers andmilitants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.
The most powerful Islamist groups operating in the Saharawere severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in thecivil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regionalwing of al Qaeda has gained fighters and arms as a result of thecivil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from MuammarGaddafi's army.
