WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (AFP) - US officials said Tuesday they were studying a purported hostage tape broadcast on Arab television to determine if the man seen on the recording was an American contract worker missing in Iraq since November.
The State Department withheld comment on the tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera television showing a man identified as Roy Hallums pleading for help from Arab leaders to secure his release.
"We've been able now to obtain a copy of the videotape," department spokeman Richard Boucher said. "We're analyzing it. It purportedly shows Mr Hallums as a hostage, but I don't have any final judgments on it at this point."
On December 18, the US embassy in Iraq appealed for the release of an American hostage, identified as Hallums, 56, who was kidnapped with five other people from the Baghdad office of a Saudi contracting firm.
In the video, the hostage had a gun to his head as he sat cross-legged on the ground admitting he was working for US forces in Iraq and seeking the help of Libya's Moamer Kadhafi and other Arab leaders.
Boucher said US officials were in touch with Hallums' relatives since his disappearance in November and the US Embassy in Baghdad was in contact with the Iraqi authorities about all unaccounted for Americans.
01/25/2005 20:23 GMT - AFP