BAGHDAD, Sept 10 (AFP) - Militants loyal to Al-Qaeda`s number two have given Italy 24 hours to promise to release Muslim women prisoners in Iraq in exchange for details about two kidnapped women aid workers, in a statement published on a website Friday.
"We ask Italy to promise unconditionally to release all Muslim women prisoners from Iraqi prisons. In turn we will give a little information about the Italian female hostages," the Ansar al-Zawahiri group purportedly said.
It was impossible to independently verify the authenticity of the statement, posted on www.islamic-minbar.com.
"The Italian government has 24 hours to reply to our demands, otherwise Italian people will never discover the fate of the Italian women hostages."
Simona Pari and Simon Torretta, both aged 29, were seized from their Baghdad office at gunpoint on Tuesday.
"We hope the Italian government will understand the lesson... For when we deliver a threat, we carry it out," it said.
"No Muslim the world over, be he Sunni or Shiites, can negotiate with a criminal, crusader, Zionist government that helps American forces rape Muslim women in Iraq`s jails."
The group also threatened Denmark, saying it was "now the Denmark`s turn to have its share of punishment" after "both Italy and Russia have been punished".
Copenhagen maintains 500 soldiers under British command in southern Iraq.
In a videotape broadcast late Thursday on Al-Jazeera television, Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri forecast a US "defeat" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ansar al-Zawahiri translates as supporters or upholders of Zawahiri.
Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni was shot dead in late August after being kidnapped by the Islamic Army in Iraq.