The group, calling itself the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) had said on Friday it would kill John Solecki in 72 hours, but on Monday a spokesman said more time would be given for the government to accede to its demands.

"We are giving more days for the government to accept our demands," Shahiq Baluch, the BLUF spokesman, said in a telephone call to the Press Club in Quetta, the capital of the southwest province of Baluchistan.

Solecki, the head of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Quetta, was kidnapped on February 2 after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead the driver.

The hitherto unheard BLUF has demanded U.N. intervention to secure the release of 141 women in Pakistani torture cells, provide information about more than 6,000 missing persons, and resolve the issue of Baluch independence under the Geneva Convention.