Australian Iraq hostage 'to be freed soon'

CANBERRA - Iraqi militants holding an Australian hostage have told the leader of Australia's Muslims, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali, they will release the man in the next few days, a spokesman for al-Hilali said yesterday.

Keysar Trad, al-Hilali's spokesman, told Reuters the Mufti of Australia's Muslims had also had a telephone conversation with a man who said he was Douglas Wood, the 63-year-old engineer taken hostage in Baghdad more than two weeks ago.

Al-Hilali travelled to Iraq last week in a bid to help free Wood.

"He will be released in the next three days as soon as there is an opportunity," Trad said the militants had told al-Hilali. Trad said he had not spoken directly to al-Hilali but to the guide accompanying the Australian Muslim leader in Iraq.

"He received a phone call purporting to be from the abductors and they put an English-speaking man on the phone who identified himself to the Mufti as Mr Wood and he said he was well. The Mufti then made arrangements to send this man his medication."

"They said he would be released as a favour to the Australian Muslim community that has made so many public statements calling for his release."

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said that Wood, who is married to an American, may have been kidnapped up to two days before a two-minute video was delivered to news agencies on May 1.

The militants demanded that Australia start withdrawing its troops from Iraq or they would kill Wood.

Australia's conservative government, a staunch US ally that was among the first to join the war on Iraq two years ago, has stood firm on its refusal to give in to the militants.

A new batch of 450 Australian troops is due to arrive in southern Iraq in the coming weeks to provide security and train the Iraqi army. They will take the total number of Australian troops in and around Iraq to about 1400.

Prime Minister John Howard expressed cautious optimism about the report that Wood could soon be released.

"We have to treat (the report) with a bit of caution," Howard told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"We would all hope that it's right but we would also be aware in a situation like this there always people who may represent things -- I don't mean the sheikh -- others who may be representing to him things that are not correct."

Wood's family has launched a newspaper and television appeal in Iraq and has also set up a web site.

Wood's brother, Malcolm, has pledged an undisclosed donation to the people of Iraq and has asked the group holding Wood to tell them how they would like the money to be spent. He denied it was a ransom payment.

- REUTERS