BEIRUT (Reuters) - Two mechanical diggers guarded by 30 police excavated beside the road to Beirut‘s International Airport on Wednesday searching for the remains of a French hostage declared dead by his abducters in 1986. Police closed the area and said they would contact the media to allow pictures only if they found the remains of French researcher Michel Seurat. The shadowy „Islamic Jihad Organisation“ claimed responsibility for kidnapping Seurat in May 1985. It announced in March 1986 he was dead, although the exact cause was never known. A ministerial source said on Tuesday Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri had been working to discover the fate of Seurat, one of the early abductions by hardline Moslem fundamentalists that drove most westerners from Lebanon during the 1975-90 civil war. „The prime minister has been working for about a year to uncover the fate of Seurat and we hope his effort will reach a successful end,“ the source, who asked anonymity, told Reuters. A political source in Beirut said Hariri had made intensive contacts with different parties, including the Iranian-backed Hizbollah (Party of God) leadership that western governments accused of orchestrating the kidnappings. The Moslem Shi‘ite Hizbollah, which has always denied a role in the kidnappings but did not condemn them, declined to comment.