Pope John Paul on Wednesday made a pressing appeal for the release of the two French journalists kidnapped in Iraq.
The Pope made the appeal during his weekly general audience. It was read for him by a priest in Italian.
"I issue a pressing appeal for an end to violence .... and (appeal) that the two journalists are treated with humanity and released to their loved ones soon," he said.
A militant group called the Islamic Army in Iraq says it is holding reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot who disappeared on August 20 on their way from Baghdad to Najaf.
Muslim and Arab leaders are clinging to hopes that diplomatic efforts will save the lives of two reporters held hostage in Iraq amid uncertainty over their fate.
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, hoping to secure the Frenchmen's freedom, left Egypt for Qatar, the fourth leg of a Middle East rescue mission.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said on Tuesday he believed the deadline had been extended until Wednesday evening, contradicting other officials who thought it was due to run out late on Tuesday.
There was no fresh word from the kidnappers.
"I think we can say the ultimatum has been delayed. That gives us some hope. It allows us to explore other channels," Lhaj Thami Breze, president of the Union of French Islamic Organisations, told Europe 1 radio.
The Arab League's ambassador in Paris, Nassif Hitti, said the League believed the deadline had not expired. "That gives us more hope that there can perhaps be a positive outcome to this tragedy," he told LCI television.
The killing of 12 Nepali hostages by a separate group of Iraqi militants highlighted the gravity of the situation. Pictures of those killings appeared on an Islamist Web site on Tuesday.
French officials remained cautious. The kidnappings stunned France, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and also objected to pre-war sanctions.
"Today, we have no information that allows us either to be inclined towards optimism or to fear the worst," Education Minister Francois Fillon told RMC radio.
A militant group called the Islamic Army in Iraq says it is holding reporters Georges Malbrunot and Christian Chesnot.
It has demanded France revoke a law banning conspicuous religious symbols in state schools such as the Muslim headscarf. The school year starts on Thursday.
President Jacques Chirac has rejected the demands for the law to be revoked, and Barnier has drummed up a chorus of Arab support for France's position.
Friends and relatives of the two men, who disappeared on Aug. 20 on their way from Baghdad to Najaf, remain worried.
"I can't even watch the television," Malbrunot's mother, Andree, told Le Parisien newspaper. "I knew he shouldn't have gone this time."
Chesnot is a reporter for Radio France Internationale and Malbrunot writes for the dailies Le Figaro and Ouest France.
The Islamic militant group Hamas joined organisations including French Muslims opposed to the headscarf ban, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and aides to anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in urging freedom for the journalists.
Huge photos of Chesnot and Malbrunot were projected on the front of Paris town hall on Tuesday, and supporters held demonstrations of solidarity across the country.