Police said that an Iraqi interpreter abducted with a British journalist working for CBS News in Basra was released unharmed last night. The American network, however, said that it was unable to confirm the news.

A Shia group that claims to have been negotiating with the hostage takers also said the interpreter had been freed and that the British combat photojournalist would be liberated later in the evening.

“The negotiators are still working on the release of the journalist,” said an official from the Basra office of Hojatoleslam Moqtada al-Sadr, the influential Shia cleric.

Unknown assailants seized the two men from a hotel in the centre of the city on Sunday, triggering a major hunt by the Iraqi security forces.

Mr al-Sadr's office also played a part, announcing yesterday morning that the pair would be released “within hours”.

By nightfall there was no sign of the British combat photojournalist, but Mr al-Sadr’s office insisted that his release was imminent.

Harith al-Edhari, a senior official, said: "All the indications are positive and we are optimistic. We expect him to arrive any moment.”

A US military spokesman, Rear Admiral Gregory Smith, was also optimistic of a speedy resolution. “We are hopeful they will be released in the coming days if not hours,” he told reporters in Baghdad before the interpeter was set free.

Iraqi and Western journalists have become key targets for insurgents and criminal gangs in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. Hostages are used to put pressure on foreign Governments and Iraqi leaders or to extort money.

A police officer in Basra said that the freed interpreter was in good health but was not permitted to talk to the media until his British colleague was set free. Another officer said that he had been handed over to authorities at the same hotel where he was abducted.

A comment on the developments was not immediately available from the British Embassy in Baghdad.

Both men were seized at gunpoint on Sunday from the Qasr al-Sultan Hotel in the centre of Basra by a gang of five to ten men, posing as policemen in civilian clothing. The hostages had checked in only the previous day.

A friend of the British photojournalist said that the news of the kidnapping came as a bit of a shock. “It is pretty tough for his family,” he added.

A senior Iraqi politician said hostage-taking has been on the increase in Basra, where British forces handed over control of security to the Iraqi authorities in December and stepped back to their airport base a few miles away.

The introduction of a new police chief and a new head of security caused a shake up of the security services, which were riddled with militia elements and corruption.

Two units, the Major Crimes Department and the Police Intelligence Department, were disbanded, prompting some of the people who worked there to turn to crime, according to Bassim al-Mousawi, deputy president of the Security Committee on the Basra Provincial Council.

“We have noticed that within the last two or three months the nature of the kidnap incidents has changed,” Mr Mousawi told The Times.

“In the past it was mainly targeting businessmen and wealthy people for ransom, while these days we have noticed that it has started to involve religious figures, governmental employees, officials and others.”

He said that two clerics were kidnapped earlier in the week. “It seems like an organised operation by some groups that we still are trying to identify.”

Members of the council were due to travel to Baghdad on Friday to talk to Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, about the problems that resulted from disbandment of the two police departments.

“I believe that if those two particular security facilities existed we would have safer environment in Basra. I would not say that this would put an end to the kidnap incidents and other crimes but it would make it much less than these.”

The kidnapped Briton has experience of covering conflicts around the world. He was one of only a few freelance photographers in Baghdad to record its fall in early 2003. His work has been seen in publications including The Sunday Telegraph, The New York Times and The Financial Times.

CBS News has confirmed that it was attempting to locate two of its staff but would not confirm their identities.

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