Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini flew Monday to the Mideast in a bid to free two female aid workers taken hostage in Iraq. Frattini's first stop is Kuwait, where he was scheduled to meet with government and religious figures, the Foreign Ministry said. Authorities here have been working feverishly to win the release of the women, weeks after an Italian freelance journalist was abducted and slain in Iraq. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government was sharply criticized at home for not doing enough to secure the slain journalist's release. In the latest kidnapping, armed militants stormed into the Baghdad office of the aid agency "Un Ponte Per..." (``A Bridge To...") on Tuesday and grabbed the two Italian women as well as two Iraqis. "In the framework of the government's political initiatives carried out to bring about the liberation of the hostages taken in Iraq, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini will undertake a mission to the Gulf region in the upcoming hours," the ministry said in a statement Sunday evening. "Frattini will renew the appeals for solidarity and for respect for the life of innocent civilians generously working for the Iraqi people," the ministry said. The announcement came hours after an Internet statement _ purportedly from a militant group _ that said the two women would be killed if Italy does not withdraw its troops from Iraq within 24 hours. Italy's government supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq and contributed about 3,000 troops for reconstruction after Saddam Hussein's ouster.
