A group of eight Asian drivers working for the U.S.-led occupation forces were released

BAGHDAD, April 12 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The list of foreigners held hostage in Iraq has lengthened with the abduction of seven Chinese Monday, April 12, as Japan admitted "no progress at all" had been made towards realizing the release of its three nationals.

The Chinese government confirmed Monday that seven of its nationals became the latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq, where deadly violence has surged in the past week to a level unprecedented since the U.S.-led invasion last year.

 A Baghdad-based Chinese diplomat said officials were trying to contact mediators to secure their release while Beijing vowed to do its utmost to rescue them, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

A political advisor at the Chinese embassy in Jordan, meanwhile, said the seven were civilians and that authorities had their names listed.

The seven had left Jordan Saturday, April 10, entering Iraq the next day via the Amman-Baghdad route which passes through the restive town of Fallujah where U.S. forces have been facing stiff resistance after a week long siege.

The American military launched an offensive on the town last week, killing more than 600 people by air bombardment of its densely-populated areas.

Briton Released

 Hope has been drawn from the release Sunday, April 11, of a Briton, contractor Gary Teeley, and a group of eight Asian drivers said to be working for the U.S.-led occupation forces.

Teeley was snatched in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah almost a week earlier by the Mehdi Army militia of Shiite scholar Moqtada Sadr, Italian forces in the city told Britain's Sky News late Sunday.

Teeley's mother told BBC radio that he had feared for his life as Italian troops battled with the Iraqi militia which held him captive for six days.

Teeley, 37, a laundry firm consultant, was in hospital, undergoing medical checks, a day after his release Sunday in Nasiriyah, Patricia Teeley said.

However, three Japanese and an American remain in peril. Contradictory reports circulated Monday on the status of negotiations to free the three Japanese hostages.

A Japanese diplomat in Jordan said "no progress" had been made towards the release of the three – including two volunteer workers and 32-year-old photojournalist.

A group calling itself the "Mujahedeen Brigades" had threatened to kill the hostages from 1300 GMT Monday unless Japan withdraws its 550 troops who are in Iraq for humanitarian operations.

Asked if there were any new developments in the hostage crisis, the diplomat in Amman said: "No progress at all".

 The Japanese assessment cast doubts over self-styled Iraqi mediator Mezher Dulaimi, who claims to have made progress in negotiations for the release of the captives.

In Tokyo, the Japanese government said it had yet to receive any information about the possible release of the three hostages.

Tokyo has insisted that, despite emotional pleas from the hostages' relatives, the government will not reverse its controversial decision to contribute troops to the U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

 The hostage crisis overshadowed a two-hour meeting Monday between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Tokyo.

 "We the United States promise to make every effort to resolve the situation," a Foreign Ministry official quoted Cheney as telling Koizumi after the Premier expressed his appreciation for U.S. cooperation over the crisis.

"We are still not able to confirm the facts," Koizumi told reporters Monday evening. "I would like to do anything to rescue those three safely".

Cheney's next stop after Tokyo is Beijing, where officials were frantically seeking information about the fate of the seven nationals abducted.

Other Nationalities

In another related development, a U.S. national, whose captors have demanded the U.S. lift its siege of Fallujah, was apparently spared so far.

Dulaimi, who heads an Iraqi human rights group, said the affair of the missing American had been settled, and he was in good health. But there was no word on when he would be released.

Earlier the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel screened a video showing a man in civilian clothes, and presented as Thomas Hamill, a U.S. national held hostage.

And negotiations were still ongoing to free a Canadian aid worker.

Fadi Ihsan Fadel, 33, of Syrian origin, was seized around midnight Thursday by members of a local militia in Kufah, according to the U.S.-based International Rescue Committee.

Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad, told television station CTV that the talks with Fadel's captors were at an "extremely delicate stage".

Canadian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sameer Ahmed said Saturday that Fadel was in good health and had been given food and water.

Sadr supporters denied Sunday that they were holding Fadel.

Another hitherto-unknown armed group in Iraq claimed Saturday it was holding 30 foreigners, including Japanese, Bulgarians, Americans, Israelis, Spanish and Koreans.

The group threatened to kill the hostages unless U.S. troops withdrew from Fallujah, where reports have put the town on the verge of a humanitarian crisis.

Israeli media had reported that an Israeli Arab and an Arab resident of occupied Al-Quds (Jerusalem) are being held in Iraq by a militia group called Ansar al-Din.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry said  that seven national missionaries held by armed Iraqis Thursday, April 8, were freed unharmed after several hours.

In Berlin, German officials confirmed Saturday that two members of Germany's crack GSG-9 security police team serving with their mission in Baghdad have gone missing and may be dead.