'We will burn them alive'

Iraqi militants are today threatening to burn three foreign hostages to death unless their country quits the US-led coalition.

Two Japanese men and one woman are being held by a previously unknown group which has vowed to kill them if Japanese soldiers do not leave Iraq. Elsewhere, seven South Koreans are being held hostage west of Baghdad by an unknown group, while a British man has been reported missing in the south.

The plight of the Japanese hostages - two aid workers and one journalist was revealed in dramatic video footage shown on al-Jazeera TV. It showed the three surrounded by masked gunmen, who claimed to be from Saraya al-Mujahideen, "the squadrons of holy warriors".

A written statement said: "Three of your sons have fallen in our hands. We offer you two choices: either pull out your forces, or we will burn them alive.

We give you three days starting the day this tape is broadcast."

The tape showed three passports and in Tokyo an official confirmed the abductions. One of the two men was named as Noriaki Imai, thought to be an aid worker based in New York. The other, Soichiro Koriyama, is thought to work for the Weekly Asahi, Japan's best-selling news magazine. The woman was named as Nahoko Takato. Japan has 550 troops in Iraq in its first overseas deployment since the Second World War.

London-born Gary Teeley, 37, has disappeared in the increasingly anarchic city of Nasariyah, the Foreign Office said. He is thought to have been working for a Qatari firm providing non-military services.