Bigley Given Irish Passport in Move to Sway Captors

The Irish government issued a passport to Iraq hostage Ken Bigley in the hope that the country's long history of conflict with Britain might sway those holding him.

The government planned to scan a copy of the passport for screening on the Arab television network al-Jazeera last night.

Mr Bigley went to Iraq on a British passport but is entitled to Irish citizenship because his mother, Elizabeth, was born in Ireland.

The Irish foreign minister, Dermot Ahern, said: "Kenneth Bigley's family has asked for an Irish passport to be issued in order to help convince his kidnappers of his Irish citizenship.

"I am happy to agree to this request and I, the Taoiseach, and the government as a whole very much hope that it will contribute to the efforts to secure his release."

The Irish passport is aimed at testing the theory that the group that kidnapped him, led by Abu Musad al-Zarqawi, might be swayed by Ireland's repeated rebellions against British rule.

The move came as Saif al-Islam Gadafy, the 32-year-old son of the Libyan leader, said he was using contacts in Iraq in an effort to free Mr Bigley.

"We have good contacts in Iraq. We have friends in hospitals... tribal leaders and we are talking to them," Mr Gadafy told journalists at the opening of a Libyan art exhibition in Vienna yesterday.

The possibility of using Irish citizenship was first raised by Mr Bigley's brother, Paul, in a radio interview in Ireland almost a fortnight ago. The Irish foreign minister, Brian Cowen, almost immediately raised it with the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, at a private meeting at the United Nations.

Paul Bigley, who has mounted a vociferous campaign from his home in Amsterdam, said last night that he was "ecstatic" over the Irish passport.

"This probably means the freedom of Ken," he said. "The Arab world has great respect for the Irish and the Irish government and respect for the plight they have been going through for centuries. The fact that Ken is Irish and the fact that we have now proven that he is Irish... I do not think there is any way that even the baddest of people would harm an Irish person."

Mr Bigley refused to speculate on whether his brother receiving an Irish passport increased the likelihood of a ransom being paid to secure his release. "I don't know. If a ransom is made it has to be met. Where the pennies are going to come from, Lord only knows," he said.

His optimism was not matched by the Irish and British governments who see the passport move as part of their duty to pursue all options other than making concessions to the hostage-takers. Two Americans kidnapped with Mr Bigley have been killed.

Almost anyone with an Irish parent or grandparent or five years residency in the country is entitled to an Irish passport.

The Foreign Office was sceptical about reports that Zarqawi has handed over Mr Bigley to a criminal group that would seek a ransom for him. A spokesman said the rumour began with a report in a Kuwait newspaper. "We just do not know," he said.

A source with intimate knowledge of the case speculated that if a ransom was to be paid the "PO box" was likely to be through Dublin. "Tony Blair can't be seen to do anything, but there needs to be a way of channelling the money," the source said.

The comments of Mr Gadafy also aroused speculation that Libya might be willing to pay a ransom to Mr Bigley's captors.

Saif Gadafy is head of the Gadafy International Foundation for Charity which intervened four years ago to secure the release of five hostages - three French, one German and one South African - who were held in the Philippines by an Islamist group linked to Osama bin Laden.

In the continuing violence yesterday, three Iraqi civilians were killed and three wounded in the northern city of Mosul when US troops opened fire after a car bomb targeted their convoy, witnesses said. Another car bomb exploded near a US convoy in the western city of Ramadi, killing two civilians.

Three headless bodies, all believed to be Iraqis, were found dumped separately in Mosul, hospital officials said.

Iraqi police disclosed yesterday that 10 officers were killed in two attacks south of Baghdad on Monday.

Seven died when rebels fired on a group of police as they returned to Baghdad from Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of the capital and three were shot dead at a petrol station in Latifiyah, five miles further south.