Baghdad, Iraq ? Philippine official Rafael Seguis said his country would withdraw its troops from Iraq “as soon as possible” in response to kidnappers’ demands. But it was unclear if any pullout would be ahead of its scheduled Aug. 20 departure.

Insurgents holding Filipino truck driver Angelo dela Cruz hostage said they had moved him to the place where he would be killed if the Philippines did not agree to remove its 51-member peacekeeping force by July 20.

In a new video, dela Cruz pleaded with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to withdraw the country’s 51 troops early so he wouldn’t be killed, Al-Jazeera said. He also asked that his body be delivered to his country.

The militant group, the Iraqi Islamic Army-Khaled bin Al-Waleed Corps, said it had done everything possible to prove it wanted to spare the life of the 46-year-old father of eight, adding that it had given him food and water.

Hostage-taking, car bombs, assassinations and other violence have hindered Iraq’s efforts to rebuild after sanctions and war. The attacks have killed scores of U.S. troops and hundreds of Iraqi civilians in the 15 months since Saddam Hussein’s ouster.

U.S. officials have long blamed the violence on foreign fighters, but recently the military said the fighters were mainly Saddam loyalists.

Diplomats moved Monday to help Iraq restore order, with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan choosing Pakistani diplomat Ashraf Jehangir Qazi as the new U.N. envoy to Iraq.

Qazi, the ambassador to Washington, will replace Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was among 22 people killed in the Aug. 19, 2003, bombing of the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.

In Brussels, Belgium, the European Union foreign ministers pledged to help promote a stable democracy in Iraq by offering economic aid — as soon as security allowed. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari thanked the EU for being the largest donor of humanitarian aid to Iraq but called for more “direct assistance.”

Also Monday, Iraq and France restored diplomatic relations that were severed during the Gulf War. France’s new ambassador to Iraq, Bernard Bajolet, hoisted the French flag atop the embassy for the first time in 13 years.

Iraqi President Ghazi Al-Yawer, whose post is largely ceremonial, said during a news conference Monday that insurgents could no longer wage attacks under the guise of resistance to an occupying power, since the United States transferred sovereignty two weeks ago.

“The occupation is over now,” he said. “We want to tell anyone who wants to threaten the security of this country: ‘Enough.’ I say, ‘Enough. Stop.”‘