BEIJING--Rebels in the Sudan border state of South Kordofan are still holding 29 kidnapped Chinese workers, the official Xinhua news agency said on Monday, contradicting a Sudanese report that 14 of them had been freed.

Their plight has attracted hundreds of thousands of online comments in China, where the country's expanding footprint abroad and awareness of its rising status have fanned acute public sensitivity to any threats to nationals overseas.

The rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) said on Sunday it took the 29 workers for their safety after a battle with the Sudanese army. The army has been fighting the SPLM-N in South Kordofan bordering on newly independent South Sudan since June.

Sudan's state SUNA news agency said the military had freed 14 of the workers.

The Chinese embassy in Khartoum said though 17 Chinese workers were taken to safety by the Sudan army after they escaped the rebels, another 29 were still held by rebels, Xinhua reported. Xinhua also quoted an unnamed Sudanese official as denying that any of the detained workers had been freed.

"The abducted Chinese personnel have had all communications links with the outside world cut," an unidentified Chinese embassy official said, according to an earlier Xinhua report.

"The unstable political situation is the root reason for attack, and the possibility cannot be excluded that the rebels are targeting Chinese as a bargaining chip with the government," Li Xinfeng, a researcher on African affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the China Daily newspaper.

In a reflection of public concern, Chinese news websites set up special sections to follow developments and allow readers to post comments. By Monday afternoon, the popular Sina news website (http://news.sina.com.cn) accumulated over half a million readers' comments discussing the workers and circulating reports about them on its accompanying microblog service.