DUBAI, June 26: Suspected militants from Abu Musab al Zarqawi's group have kidnapped three Turks in Iraq and threatened to behead them unless Turkish firms and contractors leave within 72 hours, Al Jazeera television said on Saturday.

The group's deadline would expire before the end of a two-day NATO summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Istanbul attended by US President George Bush, who will discuss a Nato role in Iraq.

The Arabic channel said it had received a statement and a video tape purportedly from the Jama'at al Tawhid and Jihad of Al Qaeda-linked operative Zarqawi, whose group last week claimed responsibility for beheading a South Korean hostage in Iraq.

A brief video image showed three men - holding what appeared to be passports - crouching before gunmen, whose faces were covered. Jazeera said the men read out their names in Turkish on the recording.

According to Al Jazeera, the statement called on "Turkish forces and companies that support the occupation forces in Iraq" to leave by the deadline or the three workers would be killed.

Turkey is not part of the multinational occupation force in Iraq but many Turks work as contractors supplying and supporting US-led forces.

Al Jazeera said the statement also urged Turks to take to the streets to protest Mr Bush's visit.

On Tuesday, militants from Jamat al Tawhid and Jihad beheaded South Korean contractor Kim Sun-il after Seoul rejected demands to pull military medics and engineers out of Iraq and drop plans to send more troops.

Kim's decapitation followed the beheading of US hostage Nicholas Berg in Iraq last month by the same group.-Reuters