DOHA, (AFP) - An Iraqi militant group has asked Indonesia to release Abu Bakar Bashir, a cleric accused of leading the extremist Jemaah Islamiyah group, in exchange for two kidnapped Indonesian hostages, in a video broadcast by Al-Jazeera television.
In a communique aired by the satellite news channel Al-Jazeera, the Islamic Army in Iraq said "the Indonesian government arrested Abu Bakar Bashir to please the Australian government".
The video shows the two Indonesian women and other hostages kidnapped at the same time.
In the video, the Iraqi group also railed against "the repression against Muslims throughout the world".
The two Indonesian women were identified by the Indonesian foreign ministry as Rosidah binti Anom and Rafikan binti Amin.
In a previous video also aired by Al-Jazeera, the Islamic Army in Iraq said it had abducted 10 foreigners working for British electronics company G-Bell.
Among the 10 are the two Indonesian women, six Iraqis and two Lebanese nationals.
Al-Jazeera, which only aired part of the latest video, said "all hostages said they were working for a company that works with the US army" in Iraq.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri is to make a televised appeal later Saturday for the release of the two Indonesian women.
"She will make an appeal through Al-Jazeera," said Garibaldi Sujatmiko, head of the presidential press bureau.
He said the content of her message was still being discussed and that the Al-Jazeera crew was to arrive shortly to record the message at her home.
Indonesia, which is predominantly Muslim, has always been opposed to the US-led campaign in Iraq.
Bashir told the Indonesian Rakyat Merdeka daily in an interview last month that a suicide bomb attack on the Australian embassy in the Indonesian capital on September 9 had been part of a US and Australian conspiracy to divide Muslims.
The cleric, who is awaiting trial in Jakarta for his alleged role in earlier bomb attacks, told the paper he believed the bombing in which nine died was a deliberate attempt to damage Islam.
Police said they suspect Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for the October 2002 Bali bombings and last year's Jakarta Marriott hotel attack, staged the Australian embassy bombing.
Some 202 people were killed in Bali while the hotel attack claimed 12 lives.
Bashir, who is in detention ahead of a trial that will also focus on his alleged leadership of Jemaah Islamiyah, condemned the Australian embassy bombing and said the attacks could not be justified.
The elderly cleric frequently launches tirades against the United States and Australia, blaming his own incarceration on a US-orchestrated plot.
Bashir was cleared last year of heading the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah but was rearrested in April immediately after completing a sentence for other offences. Police say they have new evidence that he leads the group.