A second Iraqi Islamic group claimed on Sunday responsibility for the kidnapping of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena and said she would be killed by Monday unless Italy withdrew its troops.

The ultimatum came in a statement published on an Internet website by a group calling itself the Organization of the Jihad in Mesopotamia.

"The divine verdict against the Italian prisoner Giuliana Sgrena will be carried out after 48 hours unless there is an announcement from the Italian government, headed by the criminal Berlusconi, of a withdrawal from Iraq," it said.

The name of the group was very similar to the one -- the Organization of the Jihad -- which made a similar statement on Friday, just hours after Sgrena was abducted.

Sgrena, a reporter for the leftwing daily Il Manifesto, was seized at 14:00 local time while driving away from a mosque near Baghdad where she had been interviewing Sunni Muslims.

Meanwhile, the barrage of appeals on the Italian reporter's behalf continued on Sunday as Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini appealed for Sgrena's release during an interview with Al Jazeera Arab television, saying she was a "friend of Iraq".

Al Jazeera aired an appeal it prepared with Il Manifesto at noon on Sunday.

"Giuliana Sgrena's colleagues have said she was always a defender of peace. Her articles have denounced the suffering of the Iraqi people under the occupation," the network's presenter said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 7, 2005)