By Manuel Jimenez

SANTO DOMINGO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Two kidnapped workmen from the Dominican Republic were freed unharmed by Haitians as authorities tried to calm tensions along the northwest border with Haiti after a series of cattle thefts.

Dominican officials said the two abducted men were turned over to them late on Sunday at the Fort Liberte border crossing after negotiations with Haitian police.

The two were dredging sand in the Massacre River, which separates the Dominican Republic and Haiti, when armed Haitians abducted them on Saturday near the community of Dajabon, 175 miles (280 km) northwest of Santo Domingo.

Dominican authorities said the abduction was in retaliation for a raid by about 50 armed Dominican cattle farmers who had crossed into Haiti on Friday to claim cows and horses they alleged had been stolen from them.

The Dominican Republic put its army on alert along the northwest border between the two nations that share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. The border river is shallow enough to cross easily and a bridge connects the Haitian city of Ouanaminthe with the Dominican city of Dajabon, the site of an open-air market and important trading center.

But relations have been strained in recent weeks since Haiti banned the importation of Dominican poultry because of the discovery of bird flu in the Dominican Republic. (Reporting by Manuel Jimenez, editing by Jane Sutton and Philip Barbara)

AlertNet news is provided by