Three Japanese hostages held in Iraq have been freed, Arab television station Al Jazeera reported this afternoon.
The channel showed the two men and a crying woman meeting a representative of a group called the Muslim Clerics Association.
An Iraqi militant group took the three hostage last week and threatened to kill them if Japan did not withdraw its troops from Iraq.
They were shown in a harrowing video that was broadcast around the world, bound and blindfolded kneeling before armed men, with knives held to their throats.
Japan refused to comply with the demand to pull out some 550 Japanese soldiers taking part in a non-combat mission in southern Iraq despite the militants' threat. But the worsening security situation in southern Iraq has sparked calls in Japan to withdraw the troops, whose activities are limited by law to "non-combat zones".
Two more Japanese civilians were reportedly kidnapped last night.
A Japanese government spokesman said authorities were trying to confirm the media reports, which said a Japanese non-governmental organisation had received an e-mail saying two Japanese had been kidnapped near Baghdad.
The two new Japanese hostages were tentatively identified by Kyodo news agency as freelance journalists Jumpei Yasuda and Nobutaka Watanabe.
Up to 40 foreigners from at least a dozen countries are being held hostage in Iraq.