LONDON, Oct. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- A senior Muslim negotiator involved in trying to free Ken Bigley, the British hostage in Iraq, said he believes the Briton is still alive and will be released as the Irish government has stepped up efforts to secure the release of the civil engineer, whose mother is from Ireland, the Independent reported Sunday.

    "I feel he will (survive)," Daud Abdullah, who led a delegationfrom the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) to Baghdad last week, wasquoted by the newspaper as saying. "I don't think they want to murder him but they want something out of it politically -- apart from humiliating Tony Blair and the government."

    The campaign to win over Iraqi popular support for the 62-year-old Bigley intensified further on Saturday when a fresh appeal from the MCB was published in two Baghdad newspapers. On Friday, another 100,000 leaflets appealing directly to the kidnappers weredistributed around the city.

    Following a request for help by the Bigley family, Ireland's new Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern spoke on Saturday to hisJordanian counterpart Marwan Muasher. Jordan is thought to have played a role in securing the release of two Italian aid workers last week, the newspaper said.

    Bigley, originally from Liverpool, is now in his 18th day of captivity after being seized from his home in Baghdad by the Islamic terrorist group Tawhid and Jihad, which is allegedly run by a close ally of al Qaeda, the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Enditem