An Islamist militant group in Iraq that claims to have kidnapped an Italian female journalist said it would soon release its hostage, Italian media reports said on Monday.

In an Internet statement, the group calling itself the Islamic Jihad Organization said on Monday that it had become "categorically clear" that journalist Giuliana Sgrena was "not implicated in charges of spying. We will free the Italian prisoner within a few days. "

Sgrena, a 57-year-old reporter for the leftist daily Il Manifesto, was seized last Friday afternoon while driving away from a mosque near Baghdad where she had been interviewing Sunni Muslims.

The Islamic Jihad Organization has issued four Internet statements concerning Sgrena, the first on Friday when it claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.

In its past messages, the group gave the Italian government a deadline for pulling its troops out of Iraq, saying it would kill Sgrena unless Premier Silvio Berlusconi complied.

Berlusconi is a staunch ally of US President George W. Bush and Italy has some 3,000 troops serving in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the terrorist group headed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be part of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, on Monday denied any involvement in the kidnapping.

The denial was made in a statement received and transmitted by Arab satellite TV network al Jazeera.

Sgrena, born in a small town near Lake Maggiore, is single and has no children.

She became a hard-left militant before joining the Communist daily from state radio in 1988.

She specializes in women's stories from North African countries like Algeria as well as Afghanistan and Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2005)