AMMAN, Aug 3 (AFP) - Another Jordanian has been kidnapped in Iraq, bringing to seven the number of Amman's nationals held hostage in the neighbouring country, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
"We learnt from the family of Adel Ubeidallah that he was taken hostage in Iraq the day before yesterday (Sunday)," said ministry spokesman Ali Ayed.
He had no further details on the man who local media said was a businessman from Ramtha in northern Jordan.
Four Jordanian drivers were kidnapped in Iraq last Tuesday and another two seized the day before that.
"The Jordanian government is pursuing ceaselessly its efforts to ensure the release of the seven Jordanian hostages and we expect a conclusion soon," Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher told the official Petra news agency on Tuesday.
He said the "contradictory aims and lack of clear demands from some kidnappers makes the task very arduous", adding that sometimes the demands would be addressed to the government and sometimes to the companies which employ the hostages.
Um Salah, the mother of one hostage named Ahmed Sunukrut, told AFP that her 26-year-old son had telephoned and "said he is in good health".
She added that Ahmed, father of two children, had been on his first trip to Iraq, "on behalf of Iraqi traders", when he was seized.
The wife of 40-year-old hostage Khaled Massud said she had received one call from her lorry-driver husband, but since then, nothing.
"Our four children and our families are in a terrible state. We don't understand why he has been taken hostage, he only carries food products to Iraqi traders," she said.
Daoud and Partners, the firm for which two kidnapped drivers -- Fayez Saad al-Adwan and Ahmed Salmeh Hussein -- worked, has announced that it was suspending its activities in Iraq to try to get their release.
Dubai Television reported Saturday that the kidnappers of the other four truck drivers had telephoned the station to complain no one had contacted them to seek their release and threatened to "change the (good) treatment" of the captives.
The chief of the hostage-takers who call themselves the "Death Squad," said the captives were being well treated, but he "threatened that this would change if their demands are not met", the satellite station said.