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A forensics team has found the remains of a British journalist kidnapped by Palestinian militants in Lebanon 24 years ago, the British embassy said today.

British experts excavating a site in the eastern Bekaa Valley last week dug up two bodies.

A British embassy spokeswoman said DNA tests confirmed that one of the bodies was that of Alec Collett, who was abducted in 1985 during Lebanon's civil war. His widow has been informed.

The United Nations was transporting the body home.

Mr Collett, then 64, was on assignment in Palestinian refugee camps for the UN Relief and Works Agency when he was kidnapped in Beirut. The following year a group belonging to Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Nidal said it killed him in retaliation for US air raids on Libya.