Iran has received a request from Italy to intervene to secure the release of two Italian women taken hostage in Iraq, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini sent the request to his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi on Wednesday in a phone talk, thereport said.

According to the report, Kharazi condemned in his talk with Frattini the kidnapping of the Italian women and expressed Iran's strong will to help Italy.

"We would spare no effort to secure their fast release,employing all potentials for the purpose," Kharazi was quoted as saying.

Simona Pari and Simona Torretta, two female humanitarian aid workers for the Italian charity Un Ponte Per Baghdad (Bridge to Baghdad), along with two Iraqis working for a non-governmental organization called Intersource, were kidnapped on Tuesday while gunmen drove up in three cars to their offices in central Baghdad. An Iraqi group calling itself "Ansar uz-Zawaheri" claimed responsibility for the act on Wednesday.

Source: Xinhua