ROME, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A sick Italian hostage held by a militant group in Nigeria has been released, the Italian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"I can confirm that Roberto Dieghi has been released," a ministry official said.

A spokesman for the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said in an e-mail to Reuters on Wednesday that oil worker Dieghi might be released "as early as today".

Three other captives would be kept for weeks longer, the group said.

The captors said last month that Dieghi, snatched with his colleagues from an oil export terminal operated by Italian oil company ENI <ENI.MI> on Dec. 7, had blood in his stool.

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