Talks began today between an Iraqi mediator and a representative of a Kuwaiti firm to try to free seven of the company's employees held hostage in Iraq.
"We are starting the talks," Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaymi said. "We hope to reach a positive outcome for the sake of these hostages and rescue them."
The Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company has sent a representative to Baghdad for talks with Dulaymi to try to win the release of three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian kidnapped this month by a group calling itself the "Black Banners" brigade of the Islamic Secret Army.
A source at the talks who declined to be identified said the Kuwaiti firm had agreed to one of the demands of the kidnappers - ceasing to work in Iraq. But the firm told Dulaymi that another demand - the release of Iraqi prisoners in Kuwait - was impossible for a private company to achieve.
The talks were also focusing on compensation which the kidnappers want the firm to pay for Iraqi victims of fighting and US air strikes in the restive city of Falluja.
On Thursday, the kidnappers issued a videotape showing one of the Indian hostages, Antaryami, dressed in orange clothing and with a gun pointed at his head.
A voice on the tape threatened to execute one of the hostages the following day unless negotiations got under way.
Kidnappers in Iraq have repeatedly dressed hostages in orange before killing them, usually by beheading. The clothing mimics the orange jumpsuits worn by prisoners in US detention facilities, including Muslim inmates at Guantanamo Bay.