by Philippe Sauvagnargues
ROME, Sept 12 (AFP) - Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini was to leave for the Middle East Sunday evening, as Rome pressed on with efforts to win the release of two Italian aid workers kidnapped in Iraq, his ministry said.
Frattini's trip came as an Islamist website published an ultimatum demanding Italy withdraw its troops from the war-torn country within 24 hours. Signed by the so-called Islamic Jihad Organisation in Iraq, the statement said the two women kidnapped last Tuesday would be killed unless Rome complied.
The group was the second so far to claim it was holding Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, both 29, since they were seized at their Baghdad office -- but no pictures of either woman have so far been shown.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini flatly rejected the ultimatum, while expressing doubts about its authenticity.
"The degree of credibility is still very low," he told reporters.
"It is obvious that we cannot give in to blackmail, but this ultimatum appears to have been launched to divide political forces and the Italian people, whereas the only response to terrorism is for all to stand united."
It was not known when exactly the purported ultimatum would expire since it was not clear when the statement was issued.
"After we gave (Italian Prime Minister Silvio) Berlusconi 12 hours to meet our conditions for the release of the two prisoners, we now renew the duration for another 24 hours from the time of issuing this statement," its text said.
A hitherto unknown group by the name of Ansar al-Zawahiri on Friday gave Rome 24 hours to promise to release Muslim women prisoners in Iraq in return for information about the two Italian volunteers.
It warned that Italy would never discover the fate of the women if its demand was not met. That ultimatum was also impossible to authenticate.
There seemed little chance the Italian government would agree to the new demand for the withdrawal of its troops -- the same demand was made by an Iraqi extremist group that last month murdered an Italian journalist.
On his trip to the Middle East, Frattini is to hold "a series of meetings with civil and religious authorities, which will begin in Kuwait," the foreign ministry said.
The minister will "renew calls for solidarity and respect for the lives of innocent civilians, working generously for the Iraqi population," it added.
Frattini on Friday said Rome had opted for a "strategy of all-out contacts" but would not yield to pressure nor change its foreign policy.
"We have mobilised the Islamic world. We have mobilised the civil and religious authorities inside and outside of Iraq. For that reason we do not feel alone," he said on Sunday in an interview on Rai public radio.
"There are many other ways that we can seek help in obtaining news and, hopefully, in obtaining the safe release of the two young women," he said.
Berlusconi had already sent junior foreign minister Margherita Boniver to Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Yemen to win Arab support for their release.
The Yemeni government called on Sunday for the "swift and unconditional" release of the two women, denouncing their kidnapping as "a terrorist act which is contrary to religious, moral and humanitarian values".
Their capture was "nothing to do with resistance to the occupation," Sanaa said in a statement.
Berlusconi's government, which has some 3,000 troops and police in Iraq as part of US-led coalition forces, was heavily criticised for not doing enough to save the life of the Italian journalist Enzo Baldoni.
The group that kidnapped him, the Islamic Army in Iraq, is now holding two French journalists hostage. Their fate remains unknown.
Palestinian officials and leaders of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad appealed on Sunday for the release of both the French and Italian captives.
"We call for the release of all civilians kidnapped in Iraq, in particular the two French journalists and the two Italian nationals," the Palestinian leadership, which includes the Palestinian Liberation Organisation of Yasser Arafat as well as Islamic and nationalist groups, said in a statement.
An Islamic Jihad official meanwhile called on the captors of the Italians to free them, telling AFP that "this kidnapping can not serve the Iraqi people," while also calling on Italy to withdraw its forces from Iraq.
In Italy itself, tens of thousands of people have demonstrated for the release of Pari and Torretta, who were working for the charity "A Bridge for Baghdad", while city authorities have hung giant pictures of the women and two Iraqis seized along with them on public buildings.