By Tiemoko Diallo
BAMAKO (Reuters) - The al Qaeda group holding two Austrianhostages in the Sahara has extended by two weeks its deadlinefor the Austrian government to meet its demands, a servicewhich monitors Islamist Internet forums said on Monday.
The SITE Intelligence Group said Al Qaeda in the IslamicMaghreb extended the deadline until April 6, adding that it wasa final ultimatum.
The group has demanded freedom for 10 militants held inAlgeria and Tunisia in return for releasing the pair. Algeriansecurity sources have said captors also demanded a ransom.
If the demands were not met before the new deadline, "wewill have exhausted what we could bear", SITE quoted thecaptors as saying in a statement issued on Islamist InternetWeb sites.
"Let Austria, Tunisia and Algeria be responsible for thelives of the kidnapped," it said.
Austrian diplomats have spent a week in Mali trying tosecure the release of Andrea Kloiber, 43, and Wolfgang Ebner,51, thought to be at an Islamist hideout in the Kidal region ofremote northern Mali near the Algerian and Niger borders.
Mali's Foreign Minister Moctar Ouane, however, said thegovernment had yet to ascertain whether the Austrians werebeing held on its territory.
"Up until this moment, the presence of these hostages inMalian territory has not been confirmed by the relevantservices," Ouane told a meeting with foreign diplomats. "Butthe search is actively continuing."
Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure had met with anAustrian envoy to discuss how best to secure the hostagesrelease, the minister said.
He stressed, however, that Mali's 1,276-km border withAlgeria was isolated, mountainous and difficult to search.
Some Malian officials have said the hostages may have beentransferred to southern Algeria by their captors after aresurgence of separatist violence in northern Mali last week.
The three days of fighting between Mali's army and rebelTuareg nomads, which ended on Sunday, complicated efforts tolocate the Austrian tourists.
Adding to the confusion, a prominent Austrian politiciansaid Saif al-Islam, son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, wasinvolved in negotiations, but the Gaddafi Foundation, whichSaif al-Islam heads, denied this.
Al Qaeda has warned that any attempt to launch a militaryoperation to free the captives could result in their death.(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on thetop issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )
(Writing by Dominic Evans and Daniel Flynn)
