Germany's foreign minister made a televised appeal today calling on Iraqi kidnappers to free two German engineers being held and threatened with death.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier told journalists his appeal for the release of Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke would be broadcast on the Al Jazeera televison station this afternoon, when a deadline set by the kidnappers expires.
The minister said he had no news to report and declined to give any details of Germany's efforts to free the two men or of its assessment of a video in which the kidnappers said they would kill the men in 72 hours if their demands were not met.
In the video dated January 29 and broadcast by Al Jazeera on Tuesday, the kidnappers said Germany must end its cooperation with Iraq and close its embassy there.
Steinmeier said fury in the Islamic world over cartoons satirizing the Prophet Mohammad published in European newspapers could complicate attempts to free the two men.
"It's certainly true - we saw this yesterday with the disturbances in the Palestinian areas - that this dispute over the cartoons has an influence on the mood in the Arab countries," he said.
The two engineers were abducted on January 24 outside their workplace in the industrial town of Baiji, 180 km north of Baghdad.
The hostage takers are from the Ansar al-Tawhid Wa-Sunna militant group, Jazeera said, adding that they had also demanded that all German companies leave Iraq.
The hostages' mothers made emotional televised pleas on Thursday for their sons' lives.
Susanne Osthoff, a German archaeologist, was released in December after being held hostage in Iraq for three weeks. German media reports have cited unnamed diplomats as saying that Berlin paid the kidnappers $5 million for her release.
Germany was a vocal opponent of the US-led Iraq war under former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder.
It has no troops in Iraq but has helped train Iraq's police and security forces outside the country.