BAGHDAD, Sept 28: Two female Italian hostages seized in Baghdad three weeks ago were set free on Tuesday along with kidnapped Iraqis and Egyptians in a flurry of releases, but an abducted Briton remained under threat of death.

The two freed Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, were safe and well, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said. They and two Iraqi colleagues seized with them had been freed after "difficult" negotiations, he said.

Within minutes of their release, an Egyptian telephone company said four of six of its engineers snatched last week had also been set free. But the fate of British hostage, engineer Kenneth Bigley, who was seized 12 days ago and has been threatened with beheading, remained unclear and France issued an anguished plea for the release of two abducted French journalists.

Italians greeted the release of their two nationals with joy after a hostage ordeal that transfixed the nation. "I gave the families the news a short while ago," Mr Berlusconi told Italian state television. "They are well."

"At long last this affair is over," a delighted prime minister later told parliament to loud cheers. Pari and Torretta, both aged 29, were taken at gunpoint from their central Baghdad offices on Sept 7 in a brazen kidnapping that jolted the thousands of foreigners working in Iraq.

A Kuwaiti daily said earlier on Tuesday the women's captors had agreed to free the hostages for a $1 million ransom. The government in Rome declined comment. Al Jazeera television aired footage of the women, who were due to fly to Rome on Tuesday evening, after they were released. It showed them wearing black veils, which they later lifted, smiling and chatting.

Mr Berlusconi described the release as a "moment of joy". Pope John Paul II also expressed his "great joy" at their release, while France's prime minister, Germany's foreign minister and a White House spokeman all welcomed the news of their liberation. -Agencies