Iraq's highest Sunni Muslim religious organisation has said it was not able to make contact with Islamist militants holding two French journalists hostages and said it fears they could be executed.
French diplomatic efforts continued today to secure the release of the pair who are being held in Iraq by a group said to have links with al-Qaeda.
The kidnappers are demanding that the French government lift its ban on the wearing of headscarves by Muslim girls in schools.
The French President, Jacques Chirac, again called for the release of the two men.
Mr Chirac is in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he has been discussing the crisis with Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, and the German Chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder.
The French Foreign Minister, Michel Barnier, is in Jordan for more discussions with regional leaders.
Earlier, the militant Palestinian group Hamas joined calls for the release of the hostages. A spokesman for Hamas said France had taken a positive stand over Iraq by opposing the US-led invasion of the country.
The original 48-hour deadline given by the hostage-takers for the lifting of the headscarf ban, which expired yesterday evening, was said to have been put back by 24 hours.
The hostages have urged their government to rescind the ban, which comes into force tomorrow.
Two two journalists, Christian Chesnot of Radio France Internationale and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper, went missing 11 days ago on their way from Baghdad to Najaf.
