Iraqis holding an Australian engineer hostage on Friday issued a 72-hour ultimatum for Australia to start pulling its troops out of Iraq, but Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer reaffirmed Canberra's refusal to give in.
"The important thing is that we don't look as though we're starting to cave in and give in to demands," he told Australian radio on Saturday. "If you give in to demands ... more people eventually ... will be taken hostage and further demands made, so it's important we be strong and that, for the government's part, it just continues working at trying to get Douglas out."
Al-Jazeera aired new footage of the Australian hostage Douglas Wood, and said the men holding him gave Australia 72 hours to start withdrawing its forces from Iraq.
In the footage, the 63-year-old California resident is shown with his head shaven and rifles pointed at him. Australia's government has said it will ignore demands to remove its 1,370 troops.
