BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents released a video on January 18 showing eight Chinese workers held hostage by gunmen who claim the men are employed by a construction company working with US troops, in the latest abduction of foreigners in Iraq.

China's Government confirmed the kidnappings, and the Foreign Ministry said it was "taking all measures to rescue the hostages," the official Xinhua News Agency said. The eight men from China's Fujian Province went missing last week while travelling to Jordan, Xinhua said.

The southeastern coastal province of China sends thousands of labourers abroad each year to the Middle East and elsewhere.

The Chinese Embassy in Baghdad pledged that the Chinese Government would spare no effort to secure the hostages' freedom, Xinhua said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said the eight hostages were ordinary Chinese citizens who went to Iraq individually seeking employment. He said they failed to find work and were leaving Iraq in a rental car when they were kidnapped.

"The Chinese people have always cherished friendly feelings toward the Iraqi people and sympathized and supported them," said Kong.

Xinhua reported that the men were construction workers helping to rebuild a plant in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf.

In the video, delivered to various news organizations, the eight men appear in front of a small mud brick building and display their passports for the camera. The men are flanked by two gunmen with headscarves wrapped around their faces.

In a handwritten note delivered with the tape, an insurgent group calling itself the al-Numan Brigades said it abducted the men as they were on their way out of the country.

"After interrogation, we found that they are working for a Chinese construction company that is working inside American sites in Iraq," the note said.

The note indicated the group might release the hostages because China did not participate in the war.

"The movement decided to free these Chinese soon on condition that they will not go back to their work with the occupation forces. And we hope the Chinese company will not deal with these forces," the message said.

Chinese officials said the eight hostages are from the island Pingtan County in Fujian Province. The county, 125 kilometres away from Fuzhou, the capital, is formed by more than 120 islands.

According to the Fujian newspaper Dongnan Express, the eight men are Lin Zhong, 38; Lin Qiang, 39; Wei Wu, 38; Lin Bin, 39; Lin Xiong, 34; Chen Zhiai, 36, as well as the two 18-year-olds, Zhou Sunqin and Zhou Sunli.

All of them went to the southern city of Najaf in the hope of finding some work at a construction site to rebuild a power plant.

The project itself had been agreed upon with Iraq's interim government and has nothing to do with the US-led multinational forces.

Insurgents have kidnapped about 80 foreign hostages from various countries in a bid to topple the US-backed interim government and drive out American-led troops. Many have been eventually released but dozens have been killed.

Followers of Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an al-Qaeda ally, have kidnapped and killed several foreign and Arab hostages. Others have been abducted by criminal gangs who either ask for ransom or sell them on to Muslim militant groups with political interests.

Travel warning

China warned its public on January 19 to avoid travelling to Iraq, as diplomats tried to win the release of the eight Chinese labourers abducted by Iraqi insurgents.

"Please don't rashly go to Iraq, in order to avoid unforeseeable incidents," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The Foreign Ministry said it had asked for help from Iraqi religious leaders who helped to win the release of seven Chinese abducted last year.

The kidnapping is the second of Chinese nationals in Iraq.

Last April, seven Chinese men from Fujian - the oldest 49 and the youngest 18 - entered Iraq from Jordan and were abducted in Falluja, west of Baghdad. They were later released unharmed with aid from Iraqi clerics.

Last May, three Chinese engineers working on a port construction project in Gawadar were killed and nine others wounded in a car bombing.

(Agencies via Xinhua)