British Muslim delegation arrives in Iraq

But his comments came as the unbearable strain of the past nine days appeared to have taken its toll once again on Lil Bigley, the 86-year-old mother of the captive, who was taken to hospital this afternoon.

She was previously taken to Aintree University Hospital on Thursday following a televised appeal to her son’s kidnappers to release him.

The 62-year-old engineer was snatched from his home in the wealthy district of Al-Mansour with two American colleagues nine days ago, and is being held by the hardline group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the world’s most wanted men.

Since their capture, gruesome video footage of the beheadings of Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley, who were seized with him, has already been broadcast on the internet.

The Tawhid and Jihad group has threatened to murder all three unless female prisoners were released from Iraqi prisons.

The two-man delegation from the Muslim Council of Britain aims to meet religious leaders and urge the community to put pressure on the kidnappers.

Dr Daud Abdullah told the BBC in Baghdad: “We want to get a message to the abductors. Whoever is holding Mr Bigley we are endeavouring to get a message to those captors.

“And the message is simple. It is a humanitarian one. Here is an individual above 60 years of age, his mother is above 85 years of age. She wants to see him; he was a non-combatant.”

Dr Musharraf Hussain added: “I think as fellow British citizens it is our responsibility to do what we can. I believe in the power of prayer.”

Despite broad cross-party support for the British government stance against negotiating with the terrorists, the crisis has piled pressure on Blair, who said as he arrived for the annual conference in Brighton: “We have been in touch with the Bigley family and I think everyone is amazed at how dignified they have been over the last few days.

“We will continue to do whatever we can. If you will forgive me, I don’t think there is much more I can or should say at the moment.”

But the attention of some delegates will be firmly focussed on the captive as his brother, Paul, is expected to take part in a fringe meeting tomorrow evening, entitled Iraq: War Crimes, War Criminals, organised by Labour Against the War.

Mr Bigley has previously accused the US of “sabotaging” his 62-year-old sibling’s release, and has also criticised the British Prime Minister of “only going through the diplomatic instruction book” in his efforts to free his brother.

Today, his family in Liverpool were visited by former hostage Terry Waite, who himself endured 1,760 days in captivity in the Lebanon before being released on November 18, 1991.

He spent more than three hours with the family, whom he said were “quite remarkable”.

Televised pleas from relatives of Mr Bigley – including his elderly mother, his son, and his Thai wife, Sombat – have been broadcast around the world.

Christian and Muslim leaders in Liverpool have also made a joint appeal to the kidnappers, as has Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, after Paul Bigley urged the Irish to intervene as they had not been part of the coalition. Mr Bigley’s mother was born in Dublin.

But the appeal came as the captors apparently released another message on the internet mocking the British government’s stance yesterday as “laughable”.

“As if there was any question of negotiation. Far from it – they must obey the demands of the Mujahadeen. If you refuse, we slaughter.”

Earlier today, reports which surfaced on an extremist website that Mr Bigley had been killed were dismissed by the British Foreign Office as coming from a “discredited” source.

The alezah website is the same source which carried widely-rejected claims of the murders of two Italian aid workers, Simona Pari and Simona Torretta.

The same site also stated seven British soldiers had been captured, but a UK Ministry of Defence spokesman in London said it was “not the case, it is not true”.