ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria ruled out negotiating with Islamists who took dozens of hostages on Wednesday at a gas facility in the southern desert.

"The Algerian authorities will not respond to the demands of the terrorists and will not negotiate," Interior Minister Daho Ould Kablia was quoted as saying by official news agency APS.

(Reporting By Lamine Chikhi; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)