WASHINGTON, April 13 (Xinhuanet) -- The United States said Wednesday that it was trying hard to secure the release of an American subcontractor kidnapped in Iraq but refused to negotiate with the kidnappers.

    "Obviously the US continues to hold to a policy that we do not negotiate with terrorists. It only encourages them," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters after talks with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini.

    "But we are working very, very hard to try and secure the safety of the American there," Rice said. "We are thoroughly engaged with the Iraqis and others in trying to do this."

    Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station broadcast on Wednesday a videotape showing an American surrounded by three masked gunmen, sat behind a wood desk and asked Washington to "start a dialogue with the resistance in Iraq."

    A spokesman of the US embassy in Baghdad said the hostage, called Jeffrey Ake, is a subcontractor kidnapped Monday from a work site north of the Iraqi capital.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. Enditem