AS PRESIDENT CHIRAC led the celebrations last night over the dramatic escape of a French hostage in Iraq, British diplomats expressed concern that nothing had been heard from the kidnappers of 74-year-old Norman Kember and three other peace activists.

An American woman journalist became the latest Westerner to be abducted at the weekend, as intermediaries in Baghdad admitted that they were at a loss to know how to contact the group holding Professor Kember, who is from Pinner in northwest London.

They had hoped that a new plea from his wife, Pat Kember, 72, broadcast on Arab satellite television, might persuade the kidnappers to offer some evidence that the four members of the Christian Peacemaker Team were still alive. Last night a Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: “We are doing all we can to engage the hostage-takers in a dialogue, and it is impossible to say why they won’t respond.”

The four men, including the Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Tom Fox, 54, an American, were abducted as they left a mosque in Baghdad on November 26 by a previously unheard-of group, the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. After releasing a flurry of videos of their hostages, the kidnappers have said nothing since December 7. A deadline of December 10 for the group to kill the hostages passed with no news of their fate.

In the latest abduction, an Iraqi translator was shot dead as the American freelance journalist was dragged from her car. The woman, whose name has not been released, was seized 100 yards from where the British aid worker Margaret Hassan was ambushed in October 2004. Mrs Hassan was later shot dead after a reported refusal to pay a ransom.

About 40 foreigners are still being held hostage, though a Cypriot businessman and a Lebanese engineer were freed last week. In total, insurgents have kidnapped more than 250 foreigners in the past two years, dozens of whom have been killed.

Last night details emerged of the escape of Bernard Planche, a French engineer, who ran away from the farmhouse where he was being held and then helped US troops in the hunt for his kidnappers.

M Planche, 52, climbed out through a window on Saturday after his captors suddenly abandoned the farm. As he ran down the road he saw US forces in the distance.

“He had his hands in the air and, as he approached the US checkpoint, he took his shirt off to show he had no explosives on him,” Major Jim Crawford, of the US armed forces, said.

M Planche then insisted on staying with US troops for six hours to help in the manhunt. Major Crawford did not say if anyone had been arrested, but he confirmed that a quantity of weapons had been seized.

President Chirac personally broke the news of M Planche’s escape to his family as he thanked “the coalition forces who made possible this liberation”. M Planche was taken to the French Embassy, where officials had expressed frustration that he had not taken greater care of his own safety.

France has managed to free a number of its hostages in Iraq, including three journalists last year, with reports of ransoms being paid. Other European governments, including Italy, are also alleged to have done deals with militant groups to free their citizens. Britain has ruled out such an approach and refused to pay insurgent groups for the return of the bodies of some murdered hostages.

The worry in Iraq is that there appears to be an escalation of hostage-taking since the elections last month. The sister of the Iraqi Interior Minister was abducted last week. The self-styled Islamic Army in Iraq, believed to be made up of loyalists to Saddam Hussein, claimed last month that they had killed Ronald Schulz, an American. His body has not been found.

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