Time running out for kidnapped Austrians

(CNN) -- Austrian officials are seeking to secure the release of two Austrian nationals who were kidnapped by an al Qaeda group while vacationing in North Africa ahead of a midnight Sunday deadline.

"There are efforts in all areas, unrelenting efforts to secure the earliest possible release of our citizens," Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal told CNN.

The team of high-ranking government officials met Sunday morning and planned to work throughout the day, he said.

Wolfgang Ebner, 51, and Andrea Kloiber, 44, were last heard from on February 18 while on a vacation in southern Tunisia, foreign ministry spokesman Martin Gaertner said.

Earlier this month, the Austrian government received an audio message via the Internet from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claiming to have kidnapped the pair.

The kidnappers' primary demand is the release of five prisoners in Algeria and Tunisia, Launsky-Tieffenthal said.

While the kidnappers have set a midnight deadline, there are preliminary indications that it may be extended, he said.

The government is in contact with authorities in Tunisia, Algeria, and Mali in an effort to find the missing duo, who are from the Austrian town of Hallein.

A few weeks ago, the kidnappers released a set of written demands and six photographs that include images of the Austrians.

Among the images was one that appeared to show the pair flanked by men holding assault rifles and a rocket launcher.

Another appeared to show more than 15 group members -- several of them armed. Kloiber's face is obscured in all of the photographs in which she appears. E-mail to a friend

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