UNITED NATIONS - Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Monday stressed his government would not pay ransom to release a hostage taken in Iraq and warned such a move would only breed more kidnappings.
Speaking at the United Nations, Downer underlined earlier comments from Prime Minister John Howard that ruled out payments to win the release of 63-year-old Australian engineer Douglas Wood.
"We'll be doing everything we can with two exceptions -- we won't be paying ransom and we won't be changing our policies," he told reporters.
"We are not sub-contracting our foreign policy to terrorists. And we're certainly not going to have the money of Australian taxpayers expropriated by terrorists," Downer said.
Wood's kidnapping was disclosed on Sunday when his captors released a videotape showing him pleading for his life and calling on Australia, the United States and Britain to withdraw their soldiers from Iraq.
Wood has lived in the United States since 1992 and is married to an American. He was working on construction projects in Iraq when he was seized.
"Please help me. I don't want to die," Wood said on the tape, seated on the floor and sandwiched between two masked men wielding assault rifles.
Downer said Australia was working on his release but declined to give details, adding: "We don't know where he is and we don't know anything about his condition at this stage."
But he cautioned that any payments to win the freedom of hostages, which some other nations have reportedly done in Iraq, would only lead to more terrorism.
"Suffice it to say we're not the first country to find ourselves in this position and I hope we'll be the last. But you could excuse us for wondering whether there might be more following us as well," Downer said.
"And there will be more following us, of course, if we cave in."
Australia, a staunch ally in the US-led war that brought down Baghdad strongman Saddam Hussein, has about 550 troops in the country and is deploying 350 more.
Prime Minister Howard said earlier that Australia's foreign policy could not be "dictated by terrorists."
05/02/2005 18:03 GMT