Kidnappers in Iraq have threatened to kill a German woman and her driver unless Berlin stops co-operating with the US-backed Iraqi Government, according to a tape received by a German television station.

The kidnapping is the first crisis faced by Germany's new Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has vowed to improve ties with the United States that were soured by strong disagreement over the invasion of Iraq.

Merkel told a news conference the foreign ministry had set up a crisis committee to deal with the threat, the first case of a German being taken hostage in Iraq.

"We assume this was a kidnapping. We condemn this act in the harshest possible terms. We urgently appeal to the perpetrators to hand both of them over into safe custody," Merkel said.

Merkel has said before that Berlin will carry on with the previous government's policy of helping to train Iraqi forces outside Iraq. She has ruled out sending German troops to Iraq.

The threat to kill the 43-year-old German woman and her driver was made on a videotape delivered to the German state broadcaster ARD in Baghdad, ARD said.

A still image from the tape showed two blindfolded people sitting on the ground, surrounded by three armed masked men, one holding a rocket propelled grenade launcher, another reading from a piece of paper.

German media identified the hostage as Susanne Osthoff, an archaeologist who speaks fluent Arabic, has been involved in aid work and has lived in Iraq for many years.

"She has been bringing medicine and medical equipment to Iraq for years. You'd call it help for Iraq. We are always alarmed when something happens there. Hopefully she hasn't been caught up in it," the mother, identified as Ingrid H., told N24.

The driver's identity remained unclear.

"They can rest assured the government will do everything in its power to bring both the kidnapped to safety and to secure their lives," Merkel said in a brief statement without taking questions.

A spokesman travelling with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in Washington the woman had been missing since Friday.

The issue of co-operation with the United States is a sensitive one in Germany, where an overwhelming majority of citizens opposed the US-led March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The demand that Berlin end its support for the Iraqi government was rejected by senior Social Democratic (SPD) member of parliament Hans-Ulrich Klose.

"It must be made clear to (the kidnappers) that these demands are unacceptable," he told German radio.

(China Daily November 30, 2005)