FRANCE: The French government held crisis talks on the fate of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq yesterday amid growing uncertainty over whether their kidnappers had demanded a ransom and set a two-day deadline.
The talks came as dozens of international aid agencies considered leaving Iraq following the abduction on Tuesday of two Italian women.
Top French ministers met shortly before a statement purportedly from the kidnappers was posted on a website. It denied having issued a statement on Monday demanding $5 million and setting a 48-hour deadline, which would have run out yesterday.
The French government had already voiced scepticism over Monday's Internet statement, which also called for a truce with al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and a promise of no military and commercial dealings with Iraq.
"There is absolutely no truth to the statement carried by the media on the Internet about the two French hostages and comprising financial and other demands," the new statement issued in the name of the Islamic Army in Iraq said.
Neither Monday's nor yesterday's statement has been authenticated.
France was shocked by the abduction of reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot on August 20th. The kidnappers demanded Paris rescind a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools, but the ban went into force last week.
Leaders of both countries have called for national unity. A reporters' rights group was organising a concert in central Paris last night to call for the hostages' release.
Meanwhile, a co-ordinator for foreign aid groups said he expected most of the remaining 50 or so organisations to pull out following the kidnapping of the Italians, in Iraq to help child victims of war, from their Baghdad office on Tuesday.
Aid groups met to discuss the issue yesterday but broke off the meeting early for security reasons.
UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, in a report to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, said violence in Iraq may threaten elections scheduled for January 2005.
Postponing the vote would be a severe blow for the US-backed interim government.