The Bulgaria government believes that two of its citizens held hostage in Iraq may still be alive, even though a reported deadline set by kidnappers has expired, CNN reports.

Foreign Minister Solomon Passy told CNN on Saturday he is receiving information from different sources that the two men are still alive.

Nevertheless, the government said it was not totally sure of their fate.

The Foreign Ministry identified the hostages as Ivailo Kepov and Georgi Lazov and said they are truckers.

On Thursday, the Arabic-language network Al Jazeera aired a video showing an Iraqi insurgent group threatening to behead the two hostages within 24 hours if the United States did not release all prisoners in Iraq.

The video showed the two Bulgarians sitting down with their hands tied, while three armed masked men stood behind them.
The insurgents identified themselves as the Unification and Holy War group.

Bulgaria, which deploys troops in Iraq, has lost six soldiers in the conflict.

Relatives of the abducted Bulgarians have asked the government to withdraw its 470-strong unit based in southern Iraqi city of Kerbala.

"I think we are the occupiers in Iraq and should withdraw our troops," a Ludmila Aleksova, the partner of Georgi Lazov, told Bulgarian daily 24 Chasa.

The kidnappings have increased pressure on ex-King Simeon Saxe-Coburg's government which is trying to move his country of eight million people away from its communist past and into the realm of developed Western states, Reuters reported.

"Everyone is praying," read the front-page headline of the influential Trud daily, saying the two drivers had traveled to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where they were kidnapped, because of desperate poverty at home.