Washington: Al-Qaeda's North Africa branch called for the release of prisoners in Tunisia and Algeria in exchange for freeing two Austrian tourists it claims to have kidnapped, a US monitoring group has said.

The group gave Austrian authorities three days to comply starting at midnight lastnight, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors Islamist websites.

The Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb -- an Algerian-based off-shoot of Al-Qaeda -- said it had abducted the pair in Tunisia on February 22 and warned Western tourists to stay away.

"Consequently, the state of Austria is responsible for the lives of the two hostages in the event of the expiration of the time period and not responding to our demands," the organisation said in communique issued to jihadist forums, according to SITE.

The message and Austrian press reports have named the two as Wolfgang Ebner, 51,and Andrea Kloiber, 44.

Ebner, a veteran desert expert, on February 18 phoned his son Bernhard Ebner from Tataouine in southeast Tunisia and was due to call again on February 25,but never did.

The family then alerted authorities who took the case to Interpol.

The message from Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb included six images of Ebner and a woman whose face was obscured, according to SITE.

On Tuesday the Arabic daily Annahar said the two Austrians had been taken by their captors to northern Mali.

"The kidnappers have managed to get into the Sahel, crossing Algeria and Libya to get back to their rear base in Mali," Annahar reported on its website, citing several unnamed Algerian sources.

Source : PTI