A Kuwaiti company said on Sunday that it had assurances that seven of its employees being held hostage by militants in Iraq would be freed.

The kidnappers of the seven truckers -- three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian -- were reported to have appointed a senior tribal leader to mediate after having threatened last week to behead the captives.

The group naming itself the Black Banners said in a statement that they had appointed Sheikh Hisham al-Dulaymi, head of the National Group of Iraqi Tribal Leaders, to negotiate with the embassies of the hostages and the Kuwaiti firm," the Arabic television Al Arabiya quoted the group's statement as saying.

The Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company said in a statement that it was negotiating with the Black Banners group of militants through what it called some Iraqi friends to secure the release of the seven hostages.

"There are promises and assurances (the hostages will be freed),especially after the kidnappers became certain that we have no presence in Iraq and we were just conducting transportation for the interest of some Iraqis," the firm said.

The group has demanded that the company should pay compensation to families of the dead in Falluja and that Iraqi prisoners in US and Kuwaiti jails should be released.

Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh appealed in a statement to Al Arabiya to release the hostages.

Source: Xinhua