An al-Qaida affiliate holding two Austrian tourists as hostages extended a deadline for its demands to be met by another two weeks, describing it Monday as the final extension.

The previous deadline was midnight Sunday.

Al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa, which kidnapped Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber last month, issued a statement on its Web site saying the pair will be freed only if several of its members are released from Algerian and Tunisian prisons.

“We say to Austrian public opinion and the hostages’ family that if your government is concerned about the safety of its citizens and complains about not having enough time, the Mujahedeen are offering this valuable opportunity to save the lives of those kidnapped,” the statement said. It set the new deadline for midnight April 6.

The Austria Press Agency said a spokesman for Austria’s Foreign Ministry, Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, declined to confirm the new April 6 deadline.

Using similar language to that in a previous deadline extension, al-Qaida in Islamic North Africa said, “With the end of the deadline, we consider that we have exhausted all our efforts and let Austria, Tunisia and Algeria shoulder the responsibility of the lives of the hostages.”

In its previous statement, the kidnappers warned that any attempt to free the hostages would result in their immediate execution.

On March 10, the al-Qaida branch first said in an audio recording that it kidnapped the two Feb. 22 in retribution for Western cooperation with Israel. The statement claimed the hostages were in good health.