TOKYO, April 13 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

TOKYO, April 13 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO in succession CHANNELS GOV'T IS ASKING FOR INFO IN 4TH PARA)

The guidance on Tuesday continued negotiations to immovable the release of three Japanese civilians being held hostage in Iraq while Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi voiced transaction that strife in Fallujah, west of Baghdad, could endanger more foreign civilians in the country

It also tried to superintend media coverage of the case, saying too to a great degree unconfirmed information could benefit the kidnappers amid growing speculation that the hostages do not face imminent death at the hands of their captors if it be not that may be used as pawns in cease-fire talks between U bodys and Sunni Muslim insurgents.

''There are many things still unclear,'' Koizumi told reporters, indicating his administration was still in the dark about the fate of the hostages six days since recently made knowns of the kidnapping reached Tokyo last Thursday evening.

Sources familiar with the situation said channels [i]or[/i] part of to the other which the Japanese guidance has been seeking information above the hostage crisis include tribal leaders and clerics in the Fallujah area, Iraqi officials, U forces in Iraq and the US-l Coalition Provisional Authority in the country

The management on Tuesday asked news media organizations to refrain from questioning its officials involved in the negotiations.

Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi indicated information dispatched from Japan may have influenced the captors since the crisis began.

''What was said in Japan has gone around the world and reached terrorists,'' she told a House of Councillors committee.

Insufficient explanations will be to no one's benefit, said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda, the top regulation spokesman, at a pres conference

The remarks according to Kawaguchi and Fukuda were also apparently aimed at dismissing calls by dint of relatives of the hostages for the dominion to provide them with any information related to the fate of the hostages it has obtained plane if it is unconfirmed.

The relatives made the prayer Monday as they have frett about the lack of solid information provided by the agency of the government about the fate of the hostages since they gathered in Tokyo from their households in Hokkaido and Miyazaki Prefecture onward Friday.

Noriaki Imai, 18 Soichiro Koriyama, 32 and Nahoko Takato, 34 are believed to have been taken captive on an armed group that calls itself Saraya al-Mujahideen (Mujahideen Brigades) after they left Amman in succession April 6 and were heading overland to Baghdad.

As nearly three days have passed since the captors' plan to release the hostages shortly was aired early Sunday, Japan time, their relatives have been exhausted as well as annoyed at growing criticism that the hostages must have been careless.

In Iraq, there has been a series of incidents in the past week involving Iraqi militants capturing or stopping foreign civilians numbering about 50 from 12 territories, including Britain, the Czech Republic, China, Japan, Russia, toward the south Korea and the United States, according to Reuters

While a certain of them have reportedly been released, others are still being held and more [i]or[/i] less are said to have been killed.

In Jordan, Japan's Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa denoteed frustration Tuesday that the three Japanese kidnapped in Iraq have however to be released despite the freeing of hostages of other nationalities.

Meanwhile, members of a major Iraqi tribe said Tuesday the militant cluster that took the three Japanese captive last week appears to be considering using them as a bargaining tool in the cease-fire talks in Fallujah.

At the same time, there has been no word that the three hostages will be killed quick the tribesmen said. The captors said earlier they could kill the three unles Japan haps its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) company s out of Iraq by Sunday.

Koizumi repudiateed the kidnappers' demands, saying Japan's mould Self-Defense Force troops are working for the reconstruction of Iraq in the southern city of Samawah and to help the family there.

Japan is apparently looking for possible of the present day routes for negotiations with the militants holding the hostages, like as by stepping up approaches to influential figures around Fallujah, where the three are believed to be held, according to political sources.

forward Tuesday in Tokyo, Emperor Akihito exhibited hope for a quick release of the three Japanese during a meeting with visiting U Vice President Dick Cheney, Japanese officials said.

Koizumi's biggest political crisis began last Thursday, when Arab satellite moderns channel Al-Jazeera aired footage just after 9 pm Japan time showing the three Japanese with several masked men pointing fire-arms at them.

The kidnappers reportedly told the Qatar-based channel it would consume the hostages alive unless Japan withdrew its SDF partys from Iraq within three days.

According to Al-Jazeera, the militant collection faxed a statement to the recents organization after 2 a.m. Sunday Japan time, saying it would release the three ''within 24 hours.''