Arafat says he’ll back efforts to free Bigley

PALESTINIAN leader Yasser Arafat has pledged his support to efforts to release Briton Ken Bigley, the hostage’s brother Paul said last night.

He told ITV News it was “fantastic news” and the biggest breakthrough so far in the bid for the 62-year-old civil engineer to be freed.

Paul Bigley said he had been contacted by the delegate of the Palestinian authority in Ireland, telling him of a personal letter signed by Mr Arafat.

In it he had said he would ask a Palestinian minister, who had spent many years in Iraq, to follow the matter up and help in “every way possible”.

Paul Bigley had earlier called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to quit after describing his response to the crisis as a “kiss of death” for his brother.

Mr Blair had passed his “sell-by date” and working behind the scenes to secure his brother’s release was “just not good enough,” he said.

As support poured in for the plight of Ken Bigley, Downing Street officials made clear yesterday their policy would not change.

They insisted negotiating with militants who snatched the Briton and two American colleagues from their Baghdad home would send out the wrong message.

“We have to bear in mind the implications for any future activity by hostage-takers. That is why we have to adopt the position that we have,” a spokesman said.

Tory leader Michael Howard backed Mr Blair’s tough stance saying he was in an “unenviable position”.

During a visit to Somerset he said: “I sympathise desperately with Ken Bigley and his family but we can’t give in to terrorists.”

Meanwhile Chancellor Gordon Brown expressed the sympathy of hundreds of Labour Party members gathered in Brighton with the Bigley’s ordeal.

Addressing the party conference he said: “The thoughts of everyone at this conference today are with Ken Bigley and every member of his brave family.”

In Liverpool, bouquets and cards were arriving at the home of the hostage’s family as the city’s Islamic leader sympathised with their “agony and anguish”.

A delegation of British Muslims was today expected to return home after a trip to Baghdad to try to press for Mr Bigley’s release.

Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that he was confident they had “got the message across” to the kidnappers.

There was no firm indication from Iraq yesterday about Ken Bigley’s fate, although Paul Bigley said he believed his brother was still alive.

Ken Bigley was snatched from his home in the wealthy Baghdad district of Al-Mansour with two American colleagues, and is being held by the hard-line group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the world’s most wanted men.

Since their capture, gruesome video footage of the beheadings of the two Americans, Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, has been broadcast on websites.