The Arab TV station Al-Jazeera has shown a video of the kidnapped aid worker, Margaret Hassan, pleading for the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to pull UK troops out of Iraq to help to secure her release.
In the video, Mrs Hassan is shown crying and asks for British forces, some of which are replacing American units, not to be sent to Baghdad.
She says she could face the same fate as British hostage Kenneth Bigley, who was decapitated by his captors earlier this month.
Mrs Hassan, who was working as the head of operations in Iraq for the charity Care International, was kidnapped in central Baghdad early on Tuesday morning.
In a statement released to Al-Jazeera this evening, the Taoiseach called on Mrs Hassan's kidnappers to free her.
Mr Ahern said the people of Ireland had been shocked by the abduction and that taking Mrs Hassan from her family was a cruel and shocking act.
