BBC reporter's kidnappers make demands

A senior Palestinian official said Monday that a kidnapped British reporter is still alive and the men holding him had made new demands but were turned down.

Deputy Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmed said the kidnappers confirmed that 44-year-old British Broadcasting Corp. correspondent Alan Johnston was in good health. Johnston was abducted near his Gaza City apartment March 12.

Al-Ahmed would not say who talked to the kidnappers or how it was known that they have Johnston, although he indicated there had been previous phone contact with them. In Gaza it is widely believed that the identity of the kidnappers is known, but that no move has been made against them in order not to endanger the journalist.

Earlier this month, a previously unknown group claimed it had killed Johnston, but it never provided proof and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted he had information the reporter was alive. The group called itself "The Brigades of Tawheed and Jihad," a name used elsewhere by organizations linked to al-Qaida.

Johnston's kidnapping is the latest in a string of abductions of foreign journalists in the Gaza Strip in recent months. But his captivity has stretched far longer than any of the others.

Al-Ahmed said efforts to win the reporter's release had reached a sensitive stage.

"We hope it will end soon," he said. "If we don't reach an agreement, the law will take its course, whatever method we will use to end this issue which has given the Palestinians a bad image."

Al-Ahmed described the abductors as a criminal gang, but would not say whether they demanded ransom. He said the kidnappers had been trying to present the abduction as an ideological act.

"It seems the abductors feel they are in real trouble," al-Ahmed said. "Their demands change from time to time. From our side, all the demands that were presented were rejected."

In Egypt, about 40 BBC journalists and other members of the media gathered in downtown Cairo holding posters urging Johnston's release.

BBC correspondents expressed worries about the dangers faced by journalists in some parts of the world and called on governments for support.

"I'm here for Alan and I'm here for the profession ... for what's happening to the media and all the reporters around the world _ attacks, intimidation, killing," the BBC's Eva Dadrian said.