'Bloody good' to be home says Wood

MELBOURNE - Freed Australian hostage Douglas Wood has been reunited with his family in Melbourne, telling reporters it was "bloody good" to be home.

Asked if he was feeling fragile after being rescued following 47 days in captivity in Iraq, the Australian engineer said: "Not especially. I've got some physical ailments and I've been deprived of medication for a bit."

He said it was tough readjusting after his hostage ordeal "but we'll get there". Mr Wood called his captors "arseholes" and said he did not know what group they were associated with.

He said there were times during his ordeal that he thought he would be killed.

But he said he tried to remain upbeat and "keep laughing".

"I love my family, and I knew that they would be doing everything they could," he said, his American wife Yvonne Given and his brothers Vernon and Malcolm and their wives by his side.

Mr Wood, who was taken hostage in Baghdad, said his captors made four recordings of him during his ordeal.

"You heard the first two tapes," he said, adding that one of the four was not released.

"The pressure there was just to tell family you're alive and love them."

Mr Wood said he was confused about who had taken him hostage.

"I didn't know whether it was al Qaeda or who it was. I didn't know ... obviously, my head is intact, so it wasn't al Qaeda," he said.

Mr Wood apologised to US President George W Bush and Prime Minister John Howard for comments he made while being held hostage about their involvement in the war on Iraq.

Those comments were made under duress, he said.

"I actually believe that I am proof positive that the current policy of training the Iraqi army ... works because it was Iraqis that got me out," he said.

The 63-year-old engineer said he had never heard of the Mufti of Australia, Sheikh Taj Aldin Alhilali, during his hostage ordeal.

But he said he had since learned of the mufti's efforts to secure his release.

There were some questions Mr Wood did not want to answer, saying certain aspects of his ordeal were still too traumatic to discuss.

But he was clearly overjoyed to be back in Australia, entering the press conference chanting "Waltzing Matilda".

Mr Wood and his wife flew into Melbourne airport this morning, less than a week after his hostage ordeal ended with a raid on a house in Baghdad.

He had been working in Iraq as an engineer and told reporters in Melbourne today that he might one day go back to pursue business opportunities.

However his brothers were trying to persuade him not to.

Mr Wood said he was aware of the costs associated with rescuing him, and agreed that returning to Iraq may not be the most responsible thing to do.

He did not give too many clues about his immediate future, other than to recover from his ordeal.

"(I plan to) relax and enjoy myself and get myself back together," he said.

- AAP