The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, has condemned the kidnapping in Afghanistan of an Irish woman and two other UN workers.
He called for their immediate and unconditional release.
Anetta Flanigan, from Richill in Co Armagh, was on her way to her work with the UN's Joint Electoral Management Body in the capital Kabul when she and her colleagues were kidnapped at gunpoint.
Ms Flanigan is married to a Spaniard who is an election commissioner in Afghanistan.
The other hostages are understood to be a man from the Philippines and a woman from Kosovo.
The British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has confirmed that Ms Flanigan holds dual Irish-British nationality.
A group calling itself the Islamic Army has said it was behind the kidnapping and that it would issue its demands soon.
The three are part of a joint UN-Afghan team helping to oversee this month's presidential election in the country.
