Italians rally for Iraq hostage

The demonstrators hope their voice will be heard

Several hundred people have held a rally in Rome to press for the release of an Italian female journalist being held hostage in Iraq.

Giuliana Sgrena was seized by gunmen in Baghdad on Friday while interviewing people in the street.

Two Italian aid workers who were abducted in Iraq in September and later released were at the rally in Rome.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has said Italy is trying to secure Ms Sgrena's negotiated release.

A little-known militant group, Islamic Jihad Organisation, has said it carried out the kidnap and is demanding that Italy withdraw its troops from Iraq.

A group using the same name said in September it had killed the two aid workers, Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, who were later released by another group.

Ms Sgrena's kidnapping is the latest attack on foreign reporters working in Iraq.

A French woman reporter, Florence Aubenas, and her Iraqi assistant went missing in Iraq in January.

Ms Sgrena - who works for Il Manifesto newspaper - is the eighth Italian to be taken hostage.

An Italian journalist and Red Cross aid worker, Enzo Baldoni, was kidnapped last August and killed by a group calling itself the Islamic Army in Iraq.

Four Italians were taken hostage in Iraq in April. One of them, civilian security guard Fabrizio Quattrocchi, was later shot dead by his captors, while three were released.