Japan said on Saturday it believed a Japanese hostage seized in Iraq was dead, after insurgents said they had killed him and posted footage on the Internet apparently showing his corpse.

The video showed identification papers and a passport bearing the name of Akihiko Saito, 44, a former paratrooper and veteran of the French Foreign Legion, who had been missing since his convoy was ambushed in western Iraq on May 8.

A corpse was shown lying on its back, its face bloodied.

"This is your punishment ... infidel," shouted an unseen man as gunshots rang out. A statement accompanying the video said the group shot and killed Saito.

"We have to conclude, with regret, that it is Mr. Saito," said Akira Chiba, assistant press secretary at Japan's foreign ministry. He said Saito's employer Hart Security, and Japanese police had concluded the footage showed Saito's body.

Saito's brother also confirmed the identification.

"I saw the footage and confirmed that it was my older brother," Hironobu Saito said in a handwritten statement to media organizations.

The Army of Ansar al-Sunna, one of Iraq's most feared insurgent groups, said earlier this month it carried out the ambush near the US al-Assad base and that Saito had been seriously wounded and captured.

British-based Hart Security says 10 Iraqi members of the convoy were killed in the ambush. South African Nick Coetzee is missing and presumed dead, the firm says.

Iraq's government condemned the killing of Saito.

"This criminal act will not affect diplomatic relations between Iraq and Japan," Abd al-Karim al-Enzi, Iraq's minister of state for national security, said in a statement.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies May 30, 2005)