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Brown calls al-Maliki after British hostage video airs

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown held telephone talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki yesterday about video footage of one of five British hostages being held by militants in Iraq.

The Britons -- - a computer instructor and his four bodyguards -- were seized by a Shiite militant group from inside an Iraqi Finance Ministry building in a brazen raid in Baghdad last May.

Video footage of one of the captives was aired on Tuesday by Al Arabiya television, which said the captive called for the release of nine Iraqis in return for their freedom.

Brown's spokesman said the prime minister had been "in close contact" with Maliki about the case and had "discussed it again with him over the phone this morning."

An Iraqi embassy spokeswoman said Maliki was in London, but declined to give any more details.

The hostage, who said in the video that his name was Peter, looked tired but not distressed. He had a scraggly beard and wore what appeared to be a white and black track suit.

"I miss my family a lot and the only thing I want is to get out of here. I tell Gordon Brown: Free their prisoners and we can go home," he said in remarks dubbed into Arabic.

Militants holding the five Britons released a video last December showing another of the hostages, who identified himself as Jason, saying they would kill one of the five unless Britain withdrew its troops from Iraq.

Meanwhile, Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has ordered the government to release the minutes of two Cabinet meetings held in March 2003, under former prime minister Tony Blair to discuss the legality of the allied invasion of Iraq that began later that month.

The commissioner, acting on a request made under Britain's Freedom of Information Act, said his ruling was based on "the gravity and controversial nature" of Britain's decision to go to war, and would not, as government officials have argued, set a "dangerous precedent" for releasing Cabinet papers that have traditionally remained secret for 30 years.

Thomas cited the controversy surrounding the ruling by the Blair government's attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, that going to war was legal, and the protest resignations of several of Blair's ministers that followed.

"The commissioner considers that the decision on whether to take military action against another country is so important that the accountability for such decision-making is paramount," Thomas' ruling said.

A spokesman for Brown said the government would decide whether to appeal the ruling to the courts, a step that must be taken within five weeks.
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