Negotiations are continuing to release the body of the fifth British hostage seized in Iraq as the UK Foreign Office scotched claims he may still be alive.

British hostage Peter Moore today said he was “delighted” to have been freed from captivity in Iraq and was looking forward to “getting to know” his family again.

Secret talks between American negotiators and Peter Moore’s captors were being held without the British Government’s knowledge, the father of the freed British hostage claimed today.

An expert in Britain called today for an urgent alert to warn of the dangers of beach dunes after a schoolboy was killed when tons of sand collapsed on him.