BAGHDAD, July 25: Iraq's hostage crisis intensified on Sunday as bids to free a host of foreigners and locate two missing Pakistanis drew a blank and a threatened deadline to kill the first of seven truckers drew near.

The Egyptian and Indian embassies in Baghdad said they had still failed to establish contact with two armed groups holding a Cairo diplomat and the seven truckers - three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian.

The abduction of Mohamed Mamdouh Kotb two days ago, was the first known kidnapping of a diplomat since Iraq's frenzy of hostage-taking erupted in April. "We are praying that he be released soon and we are involved in efforts to free him but I cannot discuss that now," said Mr Baddreldin el-Desouki, first secretary at Egypt's mission in Baghdad.

Officials have heard nothing new about Mr Kotb's whereabouts or received any demands from his kidnappers since he was shown sitting before his armed captors in a video broadcast on the Arab satellite news channel Al-Jazeera late on Friday.

The Indian embassy also confirmed that it had failed to establish direct contact with the kidnappers of its three nationals. "Massive efforts are being made to secure the release, not only of the Egyptian hostage, but also all those kidnapped in Iraq," Iraqi interior ministry spokesman Colonel Adnan Abdul Rahman told AFP.

"The law enforcement forces are in the process of tracking down the kidnappers in order to bring them to justice so that they get the punishment they deserve," he added, refusing to give any details for security reasons.

Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has pressed Egypt not to cave in to the kidnappers' demands, which remain unknown, unlike Manila, which withdrew troops from Iraq earlier than planned in exchange for the freedom of a Filipino hostage.

"There is no way to give to terrorists what they want," Mr Allawi said during a visit to Syria, where the two neighbouring states agreed to step up border security in a bid to close off access to anti-US insurgents.

The crisis deepened early on Sunday when Islamabad said that two Pakistanis working in Iraq had gone missing and were believed to have been kidnapped. The two men, working for a Kuwaiti company, were identified as Azad, a maintenance engineer, and Sajjad Naeem, a driver. They disappeared while returning to Baghdad at around midday on Friday.

"As yet no one has contacted our mission in Baghdad or sent any message or demand to our government," a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman said. No one at the Pakistani embassy in Baghdad was immediately available for comment.

Neither has there been any word of Mr Raad Adnan, the director of a state-owned Iraqi construction firm, Al-Mansour Contracting Co, seized in Baghdad on his way to work on Saturday.

The clock ticked down on a 48-hour delay of a threatened deadline to kill the first of the truckers unless their Kuwaiti employers leave Iraq, prisoners are freed and damages paid to victims of violence in the city of Fallujah.

The initial threat to execute the first man was to expire on Saturday, but the extension was announced by the "Holders of the Black Banners" group late on Friday via Al-Jazeera. Fallujah has long been a focal point of resistance to the US-led occupation.

Nevertheless, India has been relatively upbeat about the chances of success. "The information we have is that hopefully the crisis would be resolved," Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the US military announced that a soldier died after a roadside bomb hit his convoy near the northern oil refinery town of Beiji on Saturday. The latest death brings to almost 670 the number of US troops killed in Iraq since the March 2003 launch of the US-led invasion, based on Pentagon figures.

In Baquba, north of the capital, an Iraqi was killed and nine others were wounded on Saturday after missiles fell near their homes southwest of the restive city, hospital sources and residents said.

The cause of the bloodshed was not immediately clear. But the US military said earlier that it arrested 15 people during a dawn raid on Saturday east of Baquba who were suspected of having links with alleged Al Qaeda operative Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi.

Baghdad officials have repeatedly blamed foreign fighters for fueling the insurgency, and on a visit to Damascus on Saturday, Mr Allawi said Iraq and Syria had set up a joint committee to oversee the security of their common border. Washington has accused Syria of backing insurgents fighting US-led forces in Iraq, a charge that Damascus has repeatedly denied. -AFP

Two Pakistanis missing: FO