Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

A British hostage has been released alive after being captured in Iraq two and a half years ago.

The Iraqi government says Peter Moore, 36, is in good health.

Mr Moore, a computer programmer working on a contract in Baghdad, was captured with four of his British bodyguards at the Ministry of Finance in May 2007.

The BBC reports their captors were understood to belong to an obscure militia known as Islamic Shia Resistance, which demanded the release of up to nine of their associates held in US military custody since early 2007.

Three of the bodyguards are now dead and their bodies have been returned to Britain. The BBC reports the fourth is also thought to have been killed.

British foreign secretary David Miliband says no concessions were made to secure Mr Moore's release.

A senior Whitehall official has told the BBC the leader of the Islamic militia that kidnapped him and the four other Britons was released very recently by the US to the Iraqi authorities.