British hostage appeals for life in web video

8.00am

DUBAI - British hostage Kenneth Bigley, facing a death threat from Iraqi kidnappers, appealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair for his life in a videotape released on Islamist websites on Wednesday.

"I need you to help me now Mr Blair," Bigley said in the video, apparently made by the Tawhid and Jihad Group of al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which is holding him hostage.

Bigley said Blair was "the only person on God's earth" who could help him.

A spokesman for Blair said: "We are doing everything we can to try to resolve this situation. At the same time, everybody acknowledges how difficult this situation is."

It was not clear if the move to release the video meant Bigley had been spared for at least another day.

Asked for his reaction to the video, Bigley's brother Paul told Reuters: "It's good news is it not? The man is alive."

The group kidnapped Bigley and Americans Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong last week and threatened to kill them unless women prisoners in Iraqi jails were released.

The group beheaded Armstrong on Monday and said on Tuesday they had killed Hensley, whose body was later found.

In Wednesday's appeal Bigley, who sits with a flag of Zarqawi's group behind him, sobs as he speaks about his desire to see his family.

He is dressed in orange overalls typical of US jails and associated around the world with images of Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay.

"I think this is my last chance to speak. I don't want to die in Iraq, neither do the women in the prisons," he said.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq