Militants holding a Filipino truck driver hostage in Iraq have issued a statement extending the deadline by which they say they will behead him.
The militants are demanding the withdrawal of Philippines troops from Iraq.
There had earlier been reports that the hostage, 46-year-old Angelo de la Cruz, was being released but this has been denied by the kidnappers.
Instead, they have given the new date of 20 July for the last Filipino soldier to leave Iraq and threatened to execute their hostage if the Philippine government does not indicate within 24 hours that it will meet that demand.
The government of the Philippines earlier re-stated its plan to pull its troops out of Iraq next month but denied that this was in response to the kidnapping.
Earlier, in a videotape broadcast by Al Jazeera television, Mr de la Cruz made what he described as a final appeal to his government to withdraw its small contingent of troops from Iraq, as demanded by his kidnappers.
Meanwhile, fears are growing about the safety of three other foreign lorry drivers, two Bulgarians and an Egyptian, also kidnapped near Fallujah.
The Bulgarians have been threatened with execution unless US troops free Iraqi prisoners, while Sayed Mohammed Sayed al-Garbawi's kidnappers have demanded an unspecified ransom.
Violence concentrated in northern Iraq today
Four Iraqis were killed today in different incidents, and insurgents targeted a gas pipeline.
In Kirkuk, unknown assailants opened fire at about 9am local time at the offices of the Arab Union of Farming Co-operatives killing a security guard.
A cinema in the city owned by a Turkmen businessman was burnt to the ground in an attack at about 4am.
And a pipeline connecting the city's gas fields with the Beiji power plants to the west was attacked with an improvised explosive device at about 6.30am.
In Ramadi, west of Baghdad, US marines shot dead two members of an armed gang who attacked them, while a hospital official reported that five Iraqis were wounded.
In Baquba, four liquor stores were blown up almost simultaneously at around 5.30 am with one of the attacks killing a passer-by.
