German Chancellor Angela Merkel greeted the news of the release of two German reporters from four months in jail in Iran with relief, dpa reported.
"I am very happy that Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch are finally able to return to Germany as free people," Merkel told Bild am Sonntag, the newspaper that employed the two men.
"I hope that they recover quickly - physically and psychologically - and overcome the hard events of the last months. My thoughts are with their families, for whom a difficult time of uncertainty has ended," she was quoted as saying.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle flew late Saturday to Iran to pick up the released journalists. He met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after his arrival.