Mahdi Army 'did not kidnap Britons'

There are suggestions they were taken by the Mahdi Army in retaliation for the killing of the Shiite militia's leader Abu Qadir in Basra last week by Iraqi special forces backed by British troops.

But in an interview with the BBC, a top aide of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr said the Mahdi Army was not involved.

The British group was snatched by up to 40 men, some dressed in police uniforms, from the finance ministry in Baghdad on Tuesday morning and driven towards Sadr City in the capital.

There is mounting speculation they may have been taken in retaliation for the killing of a Mahdi Army militia leader.

The Foreign Office has said there is no firm indication as to who was responsible for the abduction of the men in the broad-daylight raid.

Sheikh Abdel al-Sattar al-Bahadli told the BBC Arabic Service the Sadrist movement and the Mahdi Army were innocent and wanted to peacefully build a new Iraq.

He told the broadcaster that clear and direct instructions from Moqtada Sadr stated "we want to build a new Iraq" through dialogue, the language of peace and by accepting other opinions.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said on Wednesday that British officials were doing all they could to secure the "swift and safe release" of the men and were working with Iraqi authorities to establish what had happened.

Speaking in Berlin, where she is attending the G8 Foreign Ministers meeting, Mrs Beckett said it was clearly a "very distressing time" for everyone concerned. She said: "We are working closely with the Iraqi authorities to establish the facts and doing all we can to secure their swift and safe release."