AMMAN, July 27: The employer of two Jordanians held hostage in Iraq announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to halt its operations there in a bid to spare their lives.

"We are terminating our activities in Iraq," Daoud and Partners executive director Rami al-Uweiss told AFP. "We have taken this decision for humanitarian reasons and out of a concern to assure the safety of our staff and obtain the release of our two drivers," said Uweiss, whose company has been working under contract to the US military.

Drivers Ahmad Salameh Hussein and Fayez Saad al-Adwan were kidnapped in Iraq on Monday by a group which reportedly threatened them with death unless their employer halted its operations in Iraq within 72 hours.

Daoud and Partners has provided food supplies to US troops in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. An official in Amman earlier said the government was "continuing to make contacts and (was) optimistic about reaching a positive outcome soon." -AFP