Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy declared Saturday that a diplomatic mission had left for Iraq to coordinate efforts to free the two kidnapped Bulgarian drivers, the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency said.

Passy added that the goal of the mission is to free the hostages, but Bulgaria will not change its foreign policy in response to the kidnapping.

Passy said that the Bulgarian troops did not come to occupy Iraq, but to conduct humanitarian missions and maintain peace.

According to unconfirmed information received by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, the two hostages are still alive.

The hostage-takers threatened Thursday to execute two Bulgarian hostages if the US military did not release all Iraqi detainees within 24 hours, the Arabian Al-Jazeera television station reported.

The Tawhid and Jihad group, which is accused of having links with the Al Qaeda terror network by the United States, sent a videotape to the television station to announce the threat.

The two Bulgarian hostages have been identified by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry as civilian truck drivers Ivaylo Kepov and Georgi Lazov.

On Friday, Passy stressed that Bulgaria has a "predictable foreign policy and we cannot expect it would change its foreign policy because of one or another group."

On Saturday, US President George W. Bush called his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov to discuss the two Bulgarian hostages. Bush vowed not to negotiate with the terrorists.

Meanwhile, Parvanov reassured Bush that Bulgaria's troop commitment remained strong despite threats by insurgents to kill the two Bulgarian hostages, the White House said.

Bulgaria, a close US ally, dispatched 480 troops to Iraq. Six Bulgarian soldiers have been killed there.

Source: Xinhua