PM speaks to hostage family

Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke to the family of Iraq hostage Kenneth Bigley this afternoon, Downing Street said.

Mr Blair spoke to the family at 2pm, after they issued a statement appealing for the premier to intervene to save the 62-year-old civil engineer, following the beheading of one of his fellow American captives Eugene Armstrong.

No 10 would give no details of the conversation, but Downing Street sources said the call followed an offer by Mr Blair to talk to the family if they felt they wanted to speak to him

The Foreign Office has made a fresh appeal on Arab television to plead for the hostage's release.

A Foreign Office official made an appeal through the Dubai-based Arabiya TV station over the weekend calling for help in finding the hostages.

That same official has made a new broadcast through that TV station and the Al-Jazeera network.

The spokesman said: "The main point they are trying to address is about women prisoners.

"There are no women prisoners under the UK's control in Iraq."

The appeal is also likely to renew calls for the captives to be released unharmed.

Mr Bigley's family face a traumatic 24-hour wait after the deadline for Mr Bigley's execution was extended, following the beheading on camera of one of his fellow hostages in Iraq, US building contractor Eugene Armstrong.

The kidnappers say Mr Bigley, 62, and their third hostage, American Jack Hensley, will meet the same fate unless Iraqi women held prisoner by the US are freed.

In a televised plea, Mr Bigley's son Craig, 33, told Mr Blair: "Only you can save him now. You have children and you will understand how I feel at this time." Mr Bigley's brother, Philip, said: "We have seen the Prime Minister spending time on trains that can help a commuter save 14 minutes on a journey to London, when he should be devoting his time to saving the life of my brother.

"We are not politicians. He is the political head of our country. It is the Prime Minister who has the power to save Ken's life. Prime Minister, we as a family are begging you, please help us."

At the family home in Liverpool, he added: "We feel helpless. We do not have the power to save Ken's life. The death of the American hostage has proved to us that if nothing is done then the two remaining captives will die by the most horrific means. The only person we can now beg to help us is the Prime Minister."

Mr Blair has said he will not negotiate with terrorists. Before news of the execution, he said: "Our response has got to stand firm."

On a video released to an Islamic website, terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is seen claiming he personally decapitated Mr Armstrong, who was seized with Mr Bigley and Mr Hensley four days ago from the Baghdad house where they were staying. The nine-minute tape showed a sobbing, blindfolded man in an orange jumpsuit kneeling in front of five black-clad militants.

The banner of al-Zarqawi's group Tawhid and Jihad - "Monotheism and Holy War" - hung on the wall behind them. The man in the centre read out a statement before pulling a knife and killing the kneeling man.

Mr Armstrong's friends and family held a candlelit vigil in Michigan last night. Cyndi Armstrong, wife of one of his cousins, said: "We're just devastated."

His brother, Ty Hensley, said the 53-year-old builder had emailed him before being taken hostage to say he feared for his safety, after security guards fled the house because of death threats. Mr Armstrong had been reluctant to break his one-year contract, despite pleas from his wife, Patty.

The family said they were praying for the other hostages, including Mr Bigley, an engineer.

Relatives of the three hostages had earlier appeared on Arab television to plead with the militants to

spare their lives, saying they had travelled to the country to help the Iraqi people and were friends of Islam.

Mr Bigley's 86-year-old mother, Elizabeth, was spending the day behind drawn curtains at her home in Bootle waiting for news.

Philip Bigley, 49, said: "I am very worried for my mother. She suffers from heart problems and this is an immeasurably difficult time for her and all the family.

"We have not listened to the TV or the radio, because it would be too stressful. We are in constant contact with the Foreign Office and we are relying on them for official and reliable information."

A US official in Washington said Mr Armstrong's body had been recovered. The US military has acknowledged it is holding two female "security prisoners". They include scientist Dr Rihab Rashid Taha who became known as "Dr Germ" for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and a biotech researcher.

Tawhid and Jihad - Arabic for "Monotheism and Holy War" - has claimed responsibility for the killing of hostages in the past, including the beheading of American Nicholas Berg, who was abducted in April.

The group has also said it is behind a number of bombings and gun attacks.

In the video the speaker says Tawhid and Jihad was taking revenge for women Iraqi prisoners and called US President George Bush "a dog".

In a separate hostage crisis, suspected Shia fighters yesterday freed 18 US-trained Iraqi national guardsmen on the orders of renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who had denounced the act as insulting to Islam.