The north African branch of Al-Qaeda is demanding US$7m and the release of several of its members in return for three Spanish hostages held in Mali, a report said Thursday.
According to the El Mundo newspaper, the Spanish government was aware of the demands and the Mali President Amadou Toumani Toure was playing "fundamental role in negotiations."
However, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told AFP he would not comment on the report.
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The Spanish aid volunteers, two men and a woman, were kidnapped on November 29 in Mauritania when they were in the last vehicle of a convoy carrying supplies for west African associations.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the kidnappings on December 8, when it also said it was holding a French man snatched in northern Mali.
Group responsible for Italian kidnappings
Last Monday, AQIM claimed responsibility for the abduction of two Italians in Mauritania on December 18.
Meanwhile, photographs were posted on the Internet late on Wednesday of two Italians kidnapped in Mauritania earlier this month, which were carried by US monitoring organisations.
Sergio Cicala, 65, and Philomene Kabore, 39, were pictured kneeling in front of five armed kidnappers against a desert background, in one photograph carried by SITE Intelligence and IntelCenter.
It was accompanied by photographs of both their passports and a written statement reiterating the claim of responsiblity by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb first made in an audio recording broadcast by Dubai-based satellite channel Al-Arabiya on Monday.
The group said the kidnapping was in response to Italian military involvement in Afghanistan and previously in Iraq, and called on the Italian public to pressure Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for a change of policy.
