British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he is "deeply saddened" that a body believed to be a British hostage has been passed to authorities in Iraq.
A body was handed over to Iraqi authorities today that Iraq believes is one of the British hostages seized in Baghdad in 2007, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
"We cannot yet definitively confirm either that this is the remains of one of the hostages, or which one," Mr Miliband said in a statement.
He said the government still believed that computer engineer Peter Moore, who was seized with his four bodyguards, was alive.
Iraqi authorities had transferred the body to British officials, and British specialists in Baghdad would carry out forensic examinations to identify the body, Mr Miliband said.
The British government had informed the families of all five hostages of the latest development, he said.
"We remain in close contact with those in Iraq who may be able to help secure the release of the hostages," he said.
"I renew my call, on behalf of the British government and the British people, to those holding the hostages to return them to their loved ones," he added.
Moore and his bodyguards were taken by a Shia militant group from the Iraqi Finance Ministry at the height of sectarian bloodshed that killed tens of thousands after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The bodies of two of the hostages, Jason Swindlehurst and Jason Creswell, were handed over to the Iraqi government in June. They had been shot, according to a coroner's report.
British and Iraqi officials said in July that two other hostages, named by the media as Alan McMenemy and Alec MacLachlan, were very likely to have been killed.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said the body had been handed over by the kidnappers in the capital's Green Zone government and diplomatic complex. "We have initial information that Peter Moore is alive," he said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was deeply saddened that a body had been handed over, a spokesman said.
"The prime minister is in close touch with the Iraqi Prime Minister (Nuri al-Maliki) about this case. He will leave no stone unturned in the government's efforts to secure the release of the remaining hostages," he said.
Since the Britons were seized, several videos of them in captivity have emerged. In March, Britain's Channel 4 News television said a video showed a healthy-looking Moore.
In February 2008, another video featuring Moore was aired by Dubai-based Al Arabiya television in which he called on Brown to free nine Iraqis in return for the hostages' freedom.
Britain joined the United States in invading Iraq in 2003, but has now withdrawn almost all its troops.
Reuters