Al Qaida give Austria three-day ultimatum

Dubai: The North African Al Qaida wing on Thursday threatened to kill two Austrian hostages if it had abducted in Tunisia if Vienna failed to co-operate with requests to secure the release of some of the group's members jailed in Tunisia and Algeria.

The three-day ultimatum started at midnight on Thursday, Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb said in a statement posted on an Islamist Web site.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said efforts were being made to secure the release of the hostages but noted that the demands were outside Vienna's jurisdiction.

"As you care for the safety of your citizens, we care to free our brothers who face the ugliest forms of torture at the prisons of Tunisia ... and Algeria," it said.

The demands along with a list of the names of the group's prisoners were sent to Vienna through unidentified mediators, it said in the posting, which had pictures of the hostages identified in Austrian media as Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner, 51.

The group, which has been waging a violent campaign against government forces and foreign interests in North Africa, said its members were jailed for confronting "the new crusade against Islam".