Neither the whereabouts nor the safety of three Japanese civilians kidnapped in Iraq have been confirmed, a Japanese diplomat says, hours after their families had hoped they would be released.
"There has not been confirmation of the facts about the current whereabouts of the three Japanese. There is also no confirmation of their safety," Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa told a news conference in the Jordanian capital Amman on Sunday.
"We're making efforts toward the earliest possible release of the three Japanese," Aisawa said, adding that Japan was keeping in close contact with relevant countries.
Relatives of the hostages, who had been cheered by earlier reports the three would be freed, grew anxious after a hoped-for release around midday (4 a.m. Irish time) failed to materialise.
"We're not getting any concrete information from anywhere. Are they really going to come back?" a tearful Naoko Imai, the mother of 18-year-old Noriaki, told reporters.
Other relatives echoed her anguish.
"Please help. Please help my son," said Kimiko Koriyama, the mother of freelance reporter Soichiro.
Arabic television station Al Jazeera had reported that the militants holding the hostages would free them in response to a call from the Muslim Clerics Association in Iraq.
The group had originally threatened to "burn them alive" unless Japanese troops were pulled from Iraq within three days.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, facing his toughest political test, has vowed not to withdraw Japan's nearly 550 ground troops from southern Iraq, despite the threats.
US Vice President Dick Cheney, now in Tokyo for the start of a three-nation tour, is expected to urge Koizumi to stay the course when he meets the Japanese leader tomorrow.
Japan was stunned on Thursday when a previously unknown group released a video showing the three, blindfolded and with a gun to their heads.
The hostages are Imai, who had planned to look into the effects of depleted uranium weapons; aid worker Nahoko Takato, 34; and Koriyama, 32.