IRAQ: Italian Foreign Minister Mr Franco Frattini appealed to Arab countries yesterday to help win the release of two Italian hostages as an apparent deadline to kill them drew near.
Underlining the gravity of the situation, a videotape showing militants slitting the throat of a Turkish hostage appeared on the internet yesterday.
Australia also said it was investigating a report that two of its nationals had been kidnapped.
The apparent deadline for the release of the two Italian women, Ms Simona Pari and Ms Simona Torretta, was set by a group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organisation in a website statement.
It said the two women, who worked on projects to help Iraqi children, would be killed unless Italy withdrew its troops from Iraq.
"Please help us free them," Mr Frattini pleaded with Arab countries, speaking at the Grand Mosque in Kuwait City on the first stop of a Gulf tour.
Following talks with Kuwaiti officials and religious leaders, he said: "Now Italy feels it is not alone. We have the solidarity of the Muslim world and Arab governments."
Italy, which has the third largest military contingent in Iraq with 2,700 soldiers, has repeatedly said it will not bow to demands by militants to pull out.
"We are there to help security on the ground only on the request of the Iraqis themselves, and we will leave Iraq when Iraqis will be able to keep security, democracy and so on," said Mr Frattini.
The Foreign Minister, whose next stop is the United Arab Emirates, said Italy had not received a ransom demand.
The seizure of the women has stirred strong emotions in Italy - partly because they are women but also because they worked for a charity that opposed the US-led Iraqi invasion.
Anti-western militants have seized numerous foreign hostages in Iraq since April, but Ms Pari and Ms Torretta, both 29, are the first Western women to be kidnapped. More than two dozen hostages have been killed.
The authenticity of Sunday's statement could not be verified and unlike previous kidnappings no footage or photographs of the two have been released. The claim was posted on a website often used by militants, but such statements sometimes prove false.
A number of other Islamic militant groups have also claimed responsibility for abducting the two Italians.
Australia said yesterday it was urgently investigating a report that two Australians had been seized in Iraq and would be killed within 24 hours unless Canberra withdrew its troops. The report, originally issued by French news agency Agence France Presse, said a group called the Islamic Secret Army had abducted two Australian security workers along with two east Asians in Samarra in southern Iraq.
"We are aware of the report and our embassy in Baghdad is investigating," said a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra. Australia has about 850 troops in Iraq.
Guerrillas in Iraq have kidnapped people from over two dozen countries since April as part of a campaign to drive foreign troops and firms out.
A videotape showing the killing of a Turkish hostage by militants loyal to al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi appeared on the internet yesterday.
In the tape a blindfolded Durmus Kumdereli urged transport companies and drivers not to "serve the occupiers" in Iraq.
The video, posted on the website of Zarqawi's Tawhid and Jihad group, showed a date of August 17th, three days after Kumdereli was abducted along with another Turkish driver. The US has offered a $25 million reward for the capture of Zarqawi, who is its top militant target in Iraq. - (Reuters)