TUNIS (Reuters) - Fourteen Tunisian workers kidnapped by armed men in western Libya three days ago were released on Sunday, the Tunisian foreign ministry said in a statement.

The gunmen said they would exchange the workers if a Libyan held in jail in Tunisia was freed in return, the ministry said, without saying whether the Libyan had been released.

The 14 were seized in the small town of Zawiya, west of the capital Tripoli, on their way to an oil refinery, a human rights activist said on Friday.