The brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, who are suspected of having killed 12 people in the attack on Charlie Hebdo weekly, have told police they want to "die in martyrdom", a French official says.

This comes as authorities have started talks with the two men, nearly 48 hours after the events at Charlie Hebdo's office.

Yves Albarello, a member of the National Assembly of France, has told French media outlets that police spoke to the two suspects over the phone after they had been surrounded by security officers in the Dammartin-en-Gloebe area for hours.

It is believed that the suspects have barricaded themselves in a printing building.

Interior Ministry officials have meanwhile confirmed that the hostages in the same area, reports of which emerged earlier this morning, have almost certainly been taken precisely by the Kouachi brothers.

AFP reports suggest the brothers have taken only one person hostage.

As many as 80 000 police officers have been deployed across France in the past two days in a manhunt which resulted in a shootout with the suspects presumably intercepted in the country's north-east.