U.K. Hostage Pleads For Life

A man who identified himself as British hostage Kenneth Bigley appeared on a

"Mr. Blair, I am nothing to you. Here's just one person living in the United Kingdom, that's all, with a family like you, like your family, your children, your boys, your wife," the speaker said in the grainy video.

"Please, you can help. I know you can," he said, addressing the British prime minister.

The speaker wore an orange jumpsuit, the kind that kidnappers put on their hostages before killing them. He sobbed in the middle of his message and wiped his forehead. A banner of the Tawhid and Jihad militant group hung on the wall behind him.

In London, Blair's Downing Street office said it was aware of reports of the video plea.

"The Foreign Office is looking into it and is keeping Mr. Bigley's family fully informed," said a spokesman, on customary condition of anonymity. "As the foreign secretary said earlier we continue to do all we can to resolve the situation but at the same time people understand how difficult the situation is."

Bigley, 62, and two American hostages working for a construction company were kidnapped from their house in Baghdad last week. The militant group of Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Tawhid and Jihad, said it kidnapped the three and threatened to kill them within 48 hours if all Iraqi women prisoners held in Iraq are not released.

The decapitated bodies of Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, were later found. Armstrong's gruesome beheading was shown in a videotape that appeared on a Web site known as a clearinghouse for Islamic militants on Monday. His body was found in Baghdad that day. On Wednesday, a decapitated body in Baghdad was identified as that of Hensley's and a videotape appeared on an Islamic Web site purportedly showing the beheading of Hensley.

Speaking earlier Wednesday before the videotape surfaced, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said his government was doing everything it could to secure the release of Bigley, but suggested there was little hope of saving him.

"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," Straw told reporters in New York, where he is attending the United Nations General Assembly.

However, Straw said said his country could not give in to the hostage takers' demands.

"We cannot get into a situation, and I believe the family understand this, where we start bargaining with terrorists and kidnappers," he said.

The U.S. military says it has two Iraqi women in custody, both high-profile security detainees held at an undisclosed location — Rihab Rashid Taha, a scientist who became known as "Dr. Germ" for helping Iraq make weapons out of anthrax, and Huda Salih Mahdi Ammash, a biotech researcher known as "Mrs. Anthrax."

Iraqi Justice Ministry spokesman Noori Abdul-Rahim Ibrahim announced in Baghdad that Iraq and coalition officials had decided to release Taha on bail — though he underlined that the decision was not related to the kidnappers' demands. But soon afterward, a U.S. Embassy spokesman ruled out any immediate release.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi knocked down the earlier comments by his Justice Department. He told The Associated Press that no release of prisoners is imminent, though his government has begun reviewing the status of its detainees. "We have not been negotiating and we will not negotiate with terrorists on the release of hostages," he said.

The date when the videotape that surfaced Wednesday was made could not be verified.

The speaker started with the phrase: "To Mr. Blair, my name is Ken Bigley, from Liverpool."

"I think this is possibly my last chance," the speaker said. "Please help me see my wife, and my son and my mother. I don't want to die. I don't deserve it."

In other developments: