Seven Chinese citizens became the latest foreigners to be kidnapped in Iraq when they were abducted by an armed group, state media quoted a Chinese diplomat in Baghdad as saying.

The seven entered Iraq from Jordan early Sunday and were most probably abducted in the flashpoint city of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, Xinhua news agency quoted the diplomat as saying.

The seven men were from eastern Fujian province, according to a name list provided by the diplomat. The oldest was 49, the youngest 18, it added.

Xinhua said that Al Arabiya television's correspondent in Fallujah had interviewed some foreigners released by kidnappers on Sunday who said they had met seven people with Chinese passports being held in a secret location.

The captives were reportedly in good health and not handcuffed, but it remained unclear what the kidnappers would do with them.

Chinese officials were not immediately available for comment.

The reported kidnappings came a day before US Vice President Dick Cheney was due to arrive in Beijing Tuesday straight from a visit to Tokyo overshadowed by the kidnapping of three Japanese civilians in Iraq.

The issue of Iraq had before the reported kidnappings been thought unlikely to feature highly on the agenda during Cheney's visit.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, resolutely opposed the invasion of Iraq and has refused to send troops to help police the US-led occupation.

Armed groups are now believed to be holding dozens of foreigners captive in Iraq as bargaining chips.

Those who abducted the three Japanese civilians have reportedly said they will burn them alive unless Tokyo starts pulling its troops out of the country.

Japan has around 500 troops deployed in the southern city of Samawa engaged in humanitarian and reconstruction projects.

The captors, according to a self-described mediator, would kill all three within hours unless Japan pulled out its troops, said Mezher al-Delaimi, identified as head of the League of the Defense of Iraqis.

The dangers to foreign civilians were further underscored Sunday when Germany said that two of its missing nationals were probably dead.

A presumed American citizen, a Canadian aid worker and a group of 30 foreigners have been reportedly kidnapped in Iraq in recent days.

Canada has confirmed that it has one missing aid worker, with officials in Ottawa saying that negotiations to free the Canadian aid worker were at a "delicate stage".

In London, the Foreign Office confirmed Sunday that Briton Gary Teeley, who was kidnapped in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriyah, had been released and was safe and well.

Teeley, 37, was described as a civilian consultant for a dye works.

Al-Jazeera television in Doha said Sunday that an armed group in Iraq had released several Asian truck drivers who had worked with US-led coalition forces and been abducted.

The television, airing footage of the men reported to be drivers, quoted the group as saying there were eight drivers, but gave a breakdown of nine, including three Pakistanis, two Turks, one Nepalese, one Indian, one Iranian and one Filipino.

Insurgents, calling themselves the "Mujahedeen of Iraq to US forces" meanwhile threatened to kill a presumed American citizen, identified as Thomas Hamill, unless the siege of Fallujah by US Marines was lifted.

The threat echoed those made Saturday by the group that claimed it was holding 30 foreign hostages from Japan, Bulgaria, the United States, Israel, Spain and South Korea.

(China Daily April 12, 2004)