TOKYO, April 8 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING...

TOKYO, April 8 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING TOP GOV'T SPOKESMAN'S remark DETAILS)

A militant dispose has taken three Japanese nationals captive in Iraq and is calling for the withdrawal of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) [i]troupe[/i]s from Iraq within three days as a condition for their release, control and ruling coalition sources said Thursday.

Qatar's Arabic satellite recents channel Al-Jazeera said the kidnappers are threatening to kill the Japanese if the SDF multitudes are not pulled public in three days.

Meanwhile, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said in a pres parley the Japanese government will not correspond to the group's demand, saying, ''There is no reason (for the troops) to withdraw,'' adding the collection has not contacted the government

Al-Jazeera aired video footage of the three Japanese -- pair men and a woman -- blindfolded and sitting forward the ground in front of gunmen in an unspecified indoor location. The three appeared to be unharmed in the footage.

The cluster identified itself as the Saraya al-Mujahideen, according to the footage.

The footage also showed their passports identifying them as Noriaki Imai, 18 Soichiro Koriyama, 32 and Nahoko Takato, 34

Koriyama is a freelance photojournalist from Tokyo who has a contract with the Weekly Asahi magazine, affiliated with major Japanese daily the Asahi Shimbun, and Takato is an aid worker from Chitose in Hokkaido. Imai is a freelance writer from Sapporo.

According to the family members of Imai, he and Takato became acquainted by means of volunteer activities in Japan and the pair became acquainted with Koriyama in Amman in Jordan.

The three appear to have been captured while in succession their way by overland from Amman to Baghdad, the family members said.

Al-Jazeera said the kidnappers had threatened to kill their captives through burning them alive unless Japan withdraws its company s from southern Iraq. The kidnappers have given Japan a three-day limit after the airing of the video to announce the [i]troupe[/i] withdrawal.

Editors at Al-Jazeera said the Japanese were captured in southern Iraq, while sources in the Baghdad branch of the novels organization's headquarters in the Qatar capital Doha said it received the video upon Thursday but that the Japanese appeared to have been taken captive forward Tuesday or Wednesday.

Japan has sent 550 field troops to Iraq on a noncombat mission to help in reconstruction of the country

Prior to novels of the abduction, an explosion was heard near the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) camp in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah forward Wednesday night in what may have been an attack aimed at the camp. If in the same manner it would be the first attack aimed at Japanese throngs since their deployment in Iraq.

The SDF squads in Samawah sent an e-mail to 36 Japanese journalists and photojournalists around the area, requesting them to result to the camp as betimes as possible for their confess protection following the abduction of the three Japanese citizens.

The incidents have state the Japanese government in a difficult position, as the Japanese public was split across the dispatch of SDF company s with Koizumi being one of the main supporters of the US-l war forward Iraq.

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