The editors of four private Amharic-language weeklies were arrested on Tuesday after reporting that eight air force pilots on a training program in Belarus had asked for political asylum there after deadly election-related clashes earlier this month, the officials said.

After several hours in custody, an Ethiopian court released each them each on 2,000-birr bail (230 dollars, 190 euros) pending a decision by prosecutors whether to charge them with defamation on a defense ministry complaint, the officials said.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last week had confirmed that the pilots in Belarus had asked for asylum and an international press freedom watchdog criticized the editors' arrest.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), which said the journalists were detained for seven hours, expressed concern about deteroriating press freedom in Ethiopia since the disputed May 15 polls.

"We are deeply concerned by signs of a crackdown on independent media in Ethiopia," the CPJ said. "The arrests were the latest attempt by Ethiopian authorities to stifle information in the wake of a violent post-election upheaval."

The CPJ also called on Addis Ababa to release a jailed newspaper distributor and restore the press credentials of five local journalists working for the US-funded Voice of America and German radio Deutsche Welle.

Authorities had accused the five early this month of reporting false information in the aftermath of the elections that the opposition claims was tainted by widespread ruling party fraud.

Protests against provisional poll results showing a ruling party victory led to clashes in the capital in which police opened fire on crowds during demonstrations, killing at least 36 people on June 8.

The violence was followed by a massive police crackdown in which thousands of people, many of them opposition supporters and activists, were rounded up and placed in detention at a military camp south of the capital.

On Friday, police announced that had released 2,665 detainees from the Zewai military camp and Wednesday said they had freed an additional 400 people.

The exact number of those still being held at Zewai was not immediately clear as the police said Wednesday that 1,387 people were still in custody but after last week's releases had said that only 465 detainees were left there.

The police also said Wednesday that another 190 people arrested in the crackdown remained in the Sendafa prison north of the capital, pending investigations.