Their bodies were handed over to the British ambassador in neighbouring Azerbaijan, before being put on a plane for London.

The four - three Britons and a New Zealander - were captured by guerrillas in October, as they worked on the installation of a telecommunications system, and were later decapitated.

The remains of Britons Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey and Rudolph Petschi, and New Zealander Stanley Shaw were positively identified by doctors on Sunday.

A motorcade of three ambulances transported the bodies to the Russian republic of Daghestan after crossing the border from Chechnya.

Daghestan's Deputy Interior Minister, Magomed Magomedov, collected the bodies at the Gerzel bridge from Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Turpal Atgeriyev.

The murdered men had been installing a mobile phone network

The remains were then taken to the border with Azerbaijan where staff from the British Embassy in Baku collected them.

The British Ambassador, Roger Thomas, said: "There were no complications whatsoever. The bodies are in coffins, very nicely made coffins. The coffins are put into zinc containers and it was done with great dignity and they've obviously taken a great deal of care in handling these bodies."

Mr Thomas accompanied the coffins in a police convoy to Baku, where they were loaded onto a British Airways flight to London.

Father 'relieved'

Mr Hickey's father Eamonn said it was "a relief" to learn at last what had happened to his son's body.

At the family pub in Thames Ditton, Surrey, he said: "It is a relief to have the feeling that they are finally coming home. We are still devastated, but at least there will be a funeral after all."

The bodies of the four men were found on Saturday evening in the village of Chernorechiye, on the outskirts of the Chechen capital Grozny.

The men had been kidnapped on 3 October and their severed heads were found following an apparantly bungled rescue attempt.

Grozny requiem planned

Mr Petschi, Mr Hickey and Mr Shaw were working for Surrey-based Granger Telecom on a contract to install telephone systems in the breakaway Russian republic. Mr Kennedy was a consultant for British Telecom.

It was reported that a requiem for the dead men will be held in the Russian Orthodox Church of the Archangel Mikhail in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Sunday.

Chechnya fought a 1994-96 independence war with Russia. It now runs its own affairs, though no country recognises its claims of sovereignty.

The region has seen a boom in crime and kidnappings for ransom since the war ended.