Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi has appealed for the release of three Japanese hostages held in Iraq as protesters called for Tokyo to withdraw its troops to save the captives' lives.
"The three Japanese hostages are private individuals, and friends of Iraq ...The people of Japan and I strongly demand for an immediate and safe release of the three hostages," he said.
The video message comes with less than 24 hours to go until a deadline set by the kidnappers, who have threatened to burn the hostages alive if Japanese troops do not pull out of Iraq .
Kawaguchi's video, including an Arabic version, will be distributed to TV broadcasters around the world on Saturday.
Japan was stunned on Thursday when an unknown group released a video showing the hostages, blindfolded and with a gun to their heads.
On Saturday, a group calling itself the "Brigades of the Hero Martyr Sheikh Ahmed Yassin" said they were holding 30 foreign hostages and threatened to decapitate them unless US forces lifted their blockade of the Iraqi town of Falluja.
"We have Japanese, Bulgarian, Israeli, American, Spanish and Korean hostages," a masked gunman said in an footage aired by Arab TV station, Al Arabiya. The footage showed no hostages.
A Japanese foreign ministry official said the ministry was checking the report and could not comment whether any Japanese, apart from the three hostages, had gone missing in Iraq .
There was no word on the whereabouts of the three hostages and a senior Japanese diplomat sent to Jordan declined to say whether he had contacted the kidnappers.