Libya set to release NY Times journalists - report

The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam, told ABC News they would be released, and the Times reported that Libyan officials told the U.S. State Department on Thursday evening that all four would be released.

The Times could not confirm details of their condition but quoted Executive Editor Bill Keller as saying, "We're all, families and friends, overjoyed to know they are safe."

The four had entered the country without visas and at least one of them was arrested by the Libyan army after it captured the city of Ajdabiya from the rebels, Gaddafi told ABC.

They are two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and Beirut bureau chief Anthony Shadid, reporter and videographer Stephen Farrell and photographers Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario.

Farrell was captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2009 and was rescued by British commandos.

The Libyan government had assured the Times that if the journalists had been captured, they would be released promptly and unharmed, the newspaper said.

Muammar Gaddafi, in power since a military coup in 1969, lost control of large swathes of Libya in a revolt last month and his security forces had been fighting back.

But after the U.N. Security Council voted on Thursday to authorise a no-fly zone over Libya and "all necessary measures" -- code for military action -- Gaddafi's government said it was declaring a unilateral cease-fire.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; editing by Xavier Briand)