LONDON, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- The brother of Briton Kenneth Bigley who has been held hostage in Iraq said Monday that the hostage might have been handed over to a group which was preparing to make a ransom demand.

    Bigley was kidnapped on Sept. 16 in Baghdad along with two Americans who have since been beheaded by the captors who are related with the Tawhid and Jihad group, controlled by Al-Qaida suspect Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

    The group has claimed to be holding the 62-year-old engineer and demanded the release of female prisoners in Iraq.

    "I am getting communiques from dear friends of mine, business friends and personal friends who are based in Kuwait that Ken possibly, and I reiterate possibly, has been handed over from the political baddies to the regular baddies," Paul Bigley said in an interview with the Sky News.

    The information was understood to have first appeared in a Kuwaiti newspaper, which reported Saturday that a militant group in Iraq was prepared to negotiate the release of Bigley, Paul said.

    The process of freeing Bigley would be made a "little easier" if the reports were accurate, Paul also told the BBC.

    "If the whole scenario has switched from a political scenario to a financial one, it makes it a little easier," Paul said.

    The British Foreign Office said it was investigating the reports.

    The British government, which vowed to do whatever it could to win Bigley's release, has insisted that it would not negotiate with terrorists.

    However, British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week encouragedthe kidnappers to make contact with the British government. Enditem