The two French nationals were taken from this hotel in Hombori.The alleged kidnappers of two Frenchmen in Mali last month have been arrested, Malian officials say.
State TV later showed three of the four arrested Malians, allegedly linked to al-Qaeda's North Africa wing.
They did not give details about the fate of the hostages, the first Westerners to be abducted in Mali by suspected Islamist militants.
Meanwhile, video footage has emerged of three other Europeans held by suspected Islamists in the desert region.
A spokesman for the Malian presidency said the arrested men were "subcontractors" for al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqim), to whom they had handed over the hostages, the Reuters news agency reports.
The French citizens, Philippe Verdon and Serge Lazarevic, were seized at gun-point at a hotel in the central town of Hombori on 23 November.
Aqim-linked fighters have in the past brought hostages into northern Mali from neighbouring countries.
Splinter groupMr Verdon and Mr Lazarevic were said to be working for a local cement firm in Hombori, near the border with Niger, when they were kidnapped.
Aqim - which often takes Westerners hostage for ransom - accused them of working for French intelligence.
French authorities deny the allegation.
At the weekend, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said "contacts" had been made to secure the release of the hostages, but gave no further details.
The video footage shows the faces of the three other hostages - an Italian woman and a Spanish man and woman - and they can be heard identifying themselves in their own languages, reports the AFP news agency.
The man's foot is bandaged and the two women are dressed in blue gowns and yellow headscarves, with masked gunmen keeping watch, it says.
The footage includes the name of a previously unknown group, the Jamat Tawhid Wal Jihad Fi Garbi Afriqqiya, which means the Unity Movement for Jihad in West Africa, the agency reports.
The group said on Saturday that it was responsible for the abductions and that it had broken away from Aqim, AFP reports.
Huge swathes of the Sahel region south of the Sahara Desert have been rendered off-limits to foreigners because of a spate of kidnappings in recent years.
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