The surge of kidnapping in Iraq threatened to start a foreign worker exodus today as Russia prepared to evacuate all its nationals and France advised its citizens to leave.

The Czech Republic has also called on all non-military personnel to quit after three Czech journalists went missing after a roadside ambush.

Four Italians and a French journalist are the latest civilians to be taken by insurgents in Iraq.

The Italians were shown on Al-Jazeera television surrounded by gunmen who demanded the withdrawal of Italian troops. The men, employees of the US security firm DTS, have been missing since yesterday.

The FBI, which has been brought in to investigate, estimates that 40 foreigners from 12 countries have been kidnapped in the last week in Iraq.

Twenty-two foreigners are believed to be still missing including the four Italians, nine Americans, three Japanese, three Czechs, one French, a Canadian and an Israeli Arab.

White House officials gave warning today that the weeks before the intended June 30 handover of power to Iraqi authorities would likely see the violence increase.

”As we get closer to transferring sovereignty, we can expect more attempts by these thugs and remnants of Saddam’s regime to seek to derail this process,” said Scott McClellan, President Bush’s spokesman.

Russia started the evacuation of its 500 nationals after eight employees of a Russian energy company were abducted at gunpoint and held captive for more than 12 hours in Baghdad.

The eight employees of Interenergoservis, five Ukrainians and three Russians, were kidnapped by gunmen who attacked their villa after they returned from work repairing a power station on Monday evening. They were released this morning.

The abductions shocked Russia, which opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq from the start and has no troops there.

In Ukraine, they prompted further calls for the government to withdraw its forces from Iraq following the death of a Ukrainian soldier there last week.

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