Two female Italian aid workers have been kidnapped in Iraq, Italian diplomatic sources said in Rome on Tuesday, local media reported.

According to the report the two Italian women seized by gunmen from the Baghdad office, an Italian charity Un Ponte Per Baghdad (Bridge to Baghdad), they were identified as Simona Torretta and Simona Pari.

It said Torretta was the mission chief and Pari project chief of the association, founded after the first Gulf War in 1991.

An Iraqi engineer working for the organization, identified as 'Rad', was also kidnapped along with a man from another Italian aid organization called Intersos.

Several reports said two Iraqis were also seized but the Italian foreign ministry said three Iraqis had been taken.

Arab satellite station Al Jazeera said the gunmen had pretended to be from the Iraqi government.

According to Italian TV, the two women have been in Iraq for many years and have recently been working with the United Nations children's fund UNICEF.

The Italian foreign ministry put its crisis unit into action as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi returned to Rome from Milan to head a cabinet meeting on the kidnappings.

Insurgents have kidnapped more than 100 foreigners since the US-led war on Iraq in March 2003. Some have been released but others were brutally killed.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2004)