Rift keeps Briton's fate unclear

Ken Bigley's kidnappers say they want Iraqi women prisoners freed

The fate of the UK hostage in Iraq, Ken Bigley, remains unclear amid conflicting reports on a woman prisoner's release.

Militants have beheaded two Americans abducted with Mr Bigley and threatened to kill him unless all Iraqi women in US-run prisons are freed.

An Iraqi official suggested a female scientist would soon be freed, but the US and UK later denied the claims.

The foreign secretary says Mr Bigley's family is preparing for the worst.

Speaking in New York, Jack Straw said: "We continue to do everything we can to secure Kenneth Bigley's safe release but it would be idle to pretend that there's a great deal of hope."

Mr Straw told the BBC's Bridget Kendall he had spoken with Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on Wednesday.

He said Mr Allawi had told him the question had been under consideration for at least a week and the decision was in the hands of the Iraqi government.

"You cannot negotiate with hostage takers," Mr Straw said.

'Complete surprise'

The Iraqi justice minister said Rihab Rashid Taha - a biological weapons scientist nicknamed Dr Germ during Saddam Hussein's rule - would be released and another female prisoner "may be released".

But he said this had nothing to do with the kidnappings.

Washington says Ms Taha and another scientist, Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, are its only two female Iraqi prisoners.

However, a US source told the BBC Ms Taha would not be released imminently.

And a UK government spokesman said there was no request by anyone at any level of the government for the female prisoners to be freed.

"The decision by the Iraqi justice minister to say what he said was a complete surprise both to the Americans and to us," he said.

"We knew about the process of [detention] review but this is, in the end, an extraordinary and complicated coincidence."

'Cautiously optimistic'

Speaking before the US denied the woman would be released, Mr Bigley's brother, Paul, described the proposal as "a light in a very dark tunnel".

Candelight vigil for hostage Profile: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi

"I am, together with the family, cautiously optimistic. It is definitely a better position than we were in yesterday," he told BBC Radio 5.

He said he had sent a message on Arabic television pleading for mercy and assuring the kidnappers he was working for the release of women prisoners.

Mr Bigley was abducted along with Americans Jack Hensley and Eugene Armstrong from their home in the Mansour district of Baghdad last Thursday.

They had been working for Middle East-based general services and construction contractor Gulf Supplies and Commercial Services.

Appeal

Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala will appear on Arabic satellite television channels al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera on Wednesday night to appeal for Mr Bigley's release.

"Most British Muslims opposed the war in Iraq completely, but taking hostages and targeting innocents runs against our faith," he told BBC News Online.

"If any harm comes to Ken Bigley, it will tarnish the image of Islam worldwide."

A candlelit vigil for Mr Bigley was held on Tuesday night at St Mary's Parish Church in Walton, Liverpool.

Mr Armstrong was beheaded on Monday by the Tawhid and Jihad group, believed to be led by al-Qaeda suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

On Wednesday, the US embassy in Baghdad confirmed a decapitated body found in the city was that of Jack Hensley.