Gunmen in police uniforms stormed the room in the Finance Ministry building in Baghdad where Peter Moore, a computer consultant, was giving a lecture.

The audacious raid on May 29, 2007, struck a supposedly safe compound in the heart of the new Iraqi Government, and started one of the worst kidnap episodes in the six years since the war began.

The kidnappers seized Mr Moore and his two guards. A second consultant escaped detection by concealing himself among a group of Iraqis. Two other security guards, waiting outside, were also overpowered and the five Britons bundled into vehicles and driven away.

Almost two years since their abduction, little is known publicly about the whereabouts of Mr Moore and the four security guards – though speculation has mounted that they are being held in Iran.

The kidnappers are seeking the release of a number of Iraqi prisoners in return for freeing the hostages. This demand was reiterated in the latest video released to British officials in Baghdad, which features Mr Moore. The British Embassy described it as “proof of life”.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office was more guarded yesterday. “We can confirm that we received a video of one of the British hostages taken in 2007,” a spokeswoman said. “Needless to say, we continue to work actively for the safe release of all of the hostages.”

The kidnappers, the Shi’ite Islamic Resistance in Iraq, have a main goal: the release of Qais al-Khazaali, a former chief spokesman for al-Mahdi Army, who is in American, not British, detention. The Americans believe that al-Khazaali formed a splinter group from al-Mahdi Army that was responsible for a raid in the holy city of Kar-bala, south of Baghdad, in January 2007 that killed five US soldiers.

Officials have said that the group behind the abduction received funding, training and weapons from Iran. The Iranian Government denies aiding militants in Iraq.

The footage of Mr Moore is the latest in at least four videos released since December 2007. Its release to British officials, rather than Arab television stations or other media outlets, as has happened in the past, could be a sign that negotiations are going in a positive direction.

The British military plans to withdraw most of its 4,100 remaining forces from Iraq by summer – one of the initial demands of the kidnappers – and negotiations about prisoners are believed to be continuing.

The US military is to release, or transfer to Iraqi detention, all prisoners held by US forces in Iraq as part of a deal signed last year with the Iraqi Government. It is unclear, however, what will happen to detainees still considered valuable.

Just over a week after the men were abducted, Dominic Asquith, then the British Ambassador to Iraq, made the first formal appeal for release of the hostages, indicating that the Government was prepared to talk to the kidnappers. Such appeals have since been few and far between. Instead, the Foreign Office adopted a policy of silence. It urged the media to refrain from revealing personal details about the Britons, in the belief that keeping their plight out of the news while covert negotiations continued would increase their chances of release.

Officials at the British Embassy in Baghdad have continued to work hard behind the scenes and British, US and Iraqi forces are all involved in the hunt.

Family and friends, however, have grown frustrated at the lack of news and launched a campaign last year to increase pressure for the men’s release. They set up a website – www.4pete.org – which explains why they are defying the official line that publicity could jeopardise the Government’s efforts to help the hostages.

“It is to be hoped that if more can be known about Pete and the ideals he represented, then pressure can be brought to bear upon those in a position to negotiate for his and his fellow captives’ release,” it says on the site.

It claims that the cases of Terry Waite, the Church of England envoy who was freed in Beirut in 1991 after four years in captivity, and Alan Johnston, the BBC journalist who was held in Gaza for four months in 2007, suggest that sustained campaigns produce results.

Mr Moore took a lucrative job in Baghdad with BearingPoint, a US management consultancy that has a contract to provide financial and technical advice to the Iraqi Government. He hoped to pay off his student loan after years of Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO).

BearingPoint said yesterday: “Peter and his fellow hostages are in our constant thoughts and prayers and we remain hopeful for their safe and immediate return home.”

For Mr Moore’s family the release of a video after such a long period of silence from the kidnappers will be welcome relief. They were unavailable for comment yesterday but have talked previously about the agony of not hearing anything.

“It’s a very difficult time for us, especially when we’ve heard nothing for a while – that’s quite a worry. But we are trying to remain positive,” Pauline Sweeney, his stepmother, told the Lincolnshire Echo in November.

Little is known publicly about the other four captives, all security guards for GardaWorld, a Canadian security company. Two of them, Alan and Jason, are from Scotland; the other two, Alec and a second man called Jason, are from Wales.

Their surnames have not been made public, but family and friends have spoken to the media over the past year, making emotional pleas for their release.

The Rev David Jones, of Greenfield Baptist Church in Llanelli, which Alec’s mother attends, said that the news of the video had been “very encouraging” for the community. “We’ve been praying for him. His family is very well respected and it’s a difficult situation.”

Roseleen, the wife of Alan, a father of two, said in December: “My son is 3, so he has not seen his dad since just before his second birthday. He has told people his daddy is coming home for Christmas, so that is quite sad.”

Alan’s sister-in-law, Caroline, said that their families were constantly trying to make sure that the hostages’ plight was “top of the political agenda”.

Last July Gordon Brown described a previous video claiming that one of the hostages, identified as Jason, had committed suicide as a “very distressing development”.

The Prime Minister’s office declined to comment on the latest developments yesterday.

Additional reporting by Emily Gosden

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