A THREE-YEAR-OLD girl kidnapped in Nigeria was last night back with her family after being released by her captors.

Margaret Hill, whose father, Mike, an oil worker, is originally from Murton, County Durham, was snatched on Thursday as she was being driven to school in Port Harcourt, in the south of the country.

Following the kidnapping, her Nigerian mother, Oluchi, received a call, saying the girl would be killed unless her father agreed to swap places with his daughter, something police advised against.

Last night, the Foreign Office confirmed she had been released after intensive diplomatic efforts to secure her return. Mr Hill said: "No ransom has been paid. She has been released because of the pressure put on by the security services of Nigeria."

He said his daughter had been kept in the bush and was covered in mosquito bites.

Mr Hill said: "The bites are very bad and I need to get her to the clinic to get her checked out.

"When we got her back, she was in a bit of trance, but she is coming alive now.

"I don't think she has had much to eat - she is very hungry."

Margaret told a television interviewer she felt "fine". Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "I was delighted and relieved to hear of Margaret's release just now.

"I am grateful to the Nigerian authorities for all their help and I hope the perpetrators will be swiftly brought to justice."

Last night, Mr Hill said recent days had been an ordeal for the family, including relatives still living in the North-East.

He said: "The pressure is unbelievable.

"You don't eat,you think about nothing else, and you are worrying all the time."

Mr Hill said the kidnappers spoke to his wife rather than him, possibly because they identified her as the "weakest link".

His son, David, 33, who lives in Sunderland, said his father had sent him a text message to confirm the release at 10.30pm.

David, who had hoped to work in Nigeria with his father but was deterred by the kidnap of oil workers, said: "It's fantastic news. I am over the moon.

"She's a little diamond and I can't wait to see her again.

"It's great that she has been freed unharmed. I'm ecstatic."

He said he thought his father would return to the UK while the family recovered from their ordeal.

Mike Hill has lived in the country for a decade and runs a bar in Port Harcourt, the country's main oil centre.

Last night, he said he did not bear grudges against the Nigerian people.

He said: "I have never had a problem with Nigeria - 99.9 per cent of the people are very good."

Margaret was snatched in an area of Nigeria rife with kidnappings, when she was grabbed from a Jeep.

Seven armed men surrounded the vehicle, which was stationary in traffic, and fired shots in the air, before breaking a window and grabbing the girl.

Kidnappings have become an almost weekly occurrence in the south of the country, where many foreign oil workers are based.

More than a dozen foreigners are in captivity and more than 200 have been taken since the end of 2005. Hostages are generally released unharmed after a ransom is paid.

But despite the rise in kidnappings, the targeting of women and children is uncommon, with attackers generally focusing on male employees of large oil companies.

Margaret's abduction saw the total number of expatriate workers kidnapped in the Niger Delta this year rise to 150. Twenty have been British.

While two children of wealthy Nigerians have been seized in the Niger Delta in recent weeks, Margaret's kidnapping was the first of a foreign child.

Both Nigerian children were released within days, without injury.