BAGHDAD, 24 September 2004 — The British government yesterday ruled out negotiations with the kidnappers of Kenneth Bigley in Iraq despite a personal appeal from the captive to Prime Minister Tony Blair to help save his life. Bigley’s kidnappers, the Al-Qaeda-linked Tawhid wal Jihad group, have threatened to behead him unless all Iraqi women are freed from US-run prisons.

Tawhid wal Jihad, led by Jordanian Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, says it killed Americans Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley because the US military rejected its demand.

Video footage showing the beheading of the two Americans has been posted on the Internet, and CIA officials say analysis of Armstrong’s killing suggests Zarqawi himself wielded the knife.

In a separate video message released by the kidnappers, 62-year-old Bigley was shown pleading for his life and appealing to Blair for help. “I don’t want to die. I don’t deserve it,” Bigley said. He was wearing the same kind of orange overalls that Armstrong and Hensley were made to wear before they were killed.

Bigley sobbed as he said he wanted to see his family again.

“I think this is my last chance to speak. I don’t want to die in Iraq, neither do the women in the prisons,” he said in the 11-minute message. “I want to live, I want to live.”

But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the government could not negotiate with hostage-takers. “Of course our hearts go out yet more to him and to his family,” Straw told the BBC. “But I’m afraid to say it can’t alter the position of the British government.

“We can’t get into a situation of bargaining with terrorists, because this would put many more people’s lives at risk, not only in Iraq but around the world.”

A Downing Street spokesman said Blair talked for the second day yesterday with the family of Bigley.

“I can confirm that the prime minister has spoken to the Bigley family again. The content of the conversation is private,” the spokesman said.

The 86-year-old mother of Bigley made a tearful plea for the captors to set her son free. “He is only a working man who wants to support his family. Please show mercy to Ken and send him home to me,” Elizabeth Bigley said in a televised address, flanked by her other sons and struggling to maintain her composure.

In Bangkok, his weeping Thai wife Sombat said: “I pray for your mercy now and beg you to release him.”

After a day of confusion on Wednesday over whether one of two Iraqi women in US custody in Iraq would be freed, the interim Iraqi government said in a statement that Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was not willing to allow her release.

The US military says it holds only two female prisoners in Iraq. Rihab Taha and Huda Ammash, dubbed “Dr. Germ” and “Mrs. Anthrax” by US forces, are accused of working on former President Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs.

Iraqi officials said a review process by Iraqis and US forces had recommended 10 days ago that three “high-value detainees”, including Taha, should be considered for release. But a statement from the government said Allawi did not want Taha to be freed for the moment.

Meanwhile, a second group claimed yesterday to have beheaded two women Italian aid workers held hostage, in a statement on the Internet, following a similar unconfirmed murder claim from another group. The authenticity of neither claims could be verified.

“The heads of the two Italian criminals, Italian intelligence agents Simona Terretta and Simona Pari, were mercilessly cut off with a knife,” said the latest statement attributed to a group calling itself Ansar Al-Zawahiri.

Earlier, another statement on the Internet that appeared Wednesday night from a group calling itself the Jihad Organization claimed it had “slaughtered” the two women.

In Washington, Allawi said that his country was moving successfully past the war and vowed that elections would take place next year as scheduled.

“Elections will occur in Iraq on time in January because Iraqis want elections on time,” Allawi told a joint meeting of Congress, an appearance that President George W. Bush’s advisers hoped would ease American voters’ doubts about the troubled campaign in Iraq.

— Additional input from agencies