MEXICO CITY, Jan 3 (Reuters) - A cousin of Mexican President Felipe Calderon was abducted at gunpoint, beaten and held for several hours, Mexican media reported on Thursday.

Mexican dailies Reforma and Milenio said armed men seized businessman Alfonso Reyes in the western state of Michoacan on Wednesday but dropped him back home four hours later.

It was not clear whether the abduction was related to the president and his battle against organized crime, and Calderon's office could not immediately confirm the incident.

Abductions for extortion are common in Mexico, which has one of the world's highest kidnapping rates. Most common are "express kidnappings" where criminal gangs abduct victims for a few hours and force them to withdraw cash from bank machines.

Mexican news agency Quadratin, which first reported the story, said Calderon's brother had confirmed the abduction. It did not know whether a ransom was paid or any cash extorted.

Reyes, a middle-aged businessman, was seized while driving with his wife in the state capital of Morelia where he owns a foreign exchange business. Milenio daily said the abduction was related to his work.

"They got him out of his van, handcuffed him, beat him and put him in the kidnappers' vehicle. Later we found out from Felipe Calderon's brother that they had freed his cousin," said Quadratin reporter Jonathan Arredondo.

A spokeswoman for Michoacan's state attorney-general's office said they were not pursuing the case after they called his home and Reyes answered the phone.

Calderon's mother and three siblings live in Michoacan, one of several states where Calderon has deployed the army against feuding drug cartels whose violent turf wars killed more than 2,350 people last year. (Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz and Catherine Bremer, Editing by Sandra Maler)

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