Kidnappers in Iraq released yesterday a Lebanese-born US marine they were once thought to have decapitated, his brother said.

Wassef Ali Hassoun's brother Sami, speaking from the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, said his family had received word Hassoun was alive and had been freed in the early hours, but declined to specify the source of the information.

The US military in Baghdad could not immediately confirm that Hassoun, missing since June 21, had been released.

"We got solid assurances that my brother is alive and was released today," the marine's brother told reporters.

Conflicting statements on Web sites have sown confusion about Hassoun's fate in the last few days. One Islamist group denied a claim put out in its name that he had been beheaded.

The Islamic Response Movement said late on Monday he had been moved to "safety" after pledging to leave the military.

Kidnappings have helped spread a climate of fear in Iraq, with foreign-

ers joining the target list since April.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saddam Hussein had been a threat, even though the chemical and biological arms he once insisted the former dictator had primed for action might never be found. "They could have been removed, they could have been hidden, they could have been destroyed," he said in London.

Britain's first ambassador to Iraq since diplomatic ties were cut in 1990 arrived in Baghdad. Edward Chaplin will present his credentials on Wednesday, a British spokesman said.

Allawi said his government and US-led forces had consulted before the latest Falluja bombing.

"Iraqi security forces provided clear and compelling intelligence to conduct a precision strike this evening on a known Zarqawi safe house in southeastern Falluja," he added.

Joining a propaganda war waged on the Internet and Arabic satellite TV channels, Iraqi gunmen calling themselves the Salvation Movement vowed to hunt Zarqawi because he "is not a son of this country and has killed thousands of its people."