A video showing eight alleged Chinese hostages has been released by insurgents in Iraq.
The video reportedly says the eight were working with US forces in the country. The insurgents said the hostages would be killed within 48 hours unless China clarifies its role in Iraq.
China's official Xinhua news agency said eight Chinese had gone missing in Iraq last week, citing local sources in Baghdad.
"The Chinese embassy has not confirmed the news," it said of a video.
One of the candidates Iraqi Prime Minister Mr Iyad Allawi is fielding in the January 30th elections was killed in the southern city of Basra today, officials in Baghdad and Basra said.
Earlier a suicide car bomber attacked a Baghdad office used by a major Shia party today.
Police said one person was killed and seven were wounded by the blast at the office used by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). A leading SCIRI official said the dead man was one of the guards at the building.
He said guards had opened fire at the suicide bomber's vehicle as it approached a checkpoint.
SCIRI's leader heads a list of mainly Shia candidates expected to win strong support in the elections.
The polls have divided Iraq, with most of the 60 per cent Shia majority insisting the vote goes ahead to cement their political dominance after decades of oppression under Saddam Hussein, while many Sunni Arabs say the election should be delayed because of widespread violence.
Several leading Sunni Arab parties say they will boycott the polls because the results will not be fair. Sunni Arabs dominated the ruling class under Saddam, but many now fear losing influence, and the insurgency in Iraq is dominated by Sunnis.
Last month, a suicide car bomb at the SCIRI headquarters in Baghdad killed several people, and nearly 70 were killed in twin suicide bombings in the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Kerbala.
Insurgents have also attacked representatives of Iraq's most revered Shia cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.