DUBAI (Reuters) - Three Christian peace activists held hostage in Iraq were shown in a video aired on Al Jazeera television on Tuesday, but the fourth captive, an American, was not seen.
The men, who were kidnapped in November, called on Gulf Arab leaders and their own governments to help free them, the Qatar-based station said.
The video, dated February 28,
was the first since the hostage takers said in January that U.S.-led forces had one last chance to free Iraqi prisoners or the men would be killed.
The men shown appeared to be Briton Norman Kember and Canadians James Loney and Harmeet Sooden and they all seemed to be in good health. American Tom Fox did not appear in the footage.
The footage showed the three men sitting in a room. They were speaking to the camera, but their voices could not be heard.
Veteran British peace campaigner Bruce Kent, a friend of Kember, expressed relief at seeing the men in the video.
"They're alive and they're not having nervous breakdowns, they're obviously speaking quite sensibly, even though we don't know what they're saying," Kent told Sky television.
"We know the people who have got them are still trying to get some negotiating position from them and they haven't put a deadline," Kent added. "I am hopeful."
A group calling itself the Swords of Truth kidnapped the men in Baghdad, where they were working with the organisation Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).
CPT said it was glad to see three of its members alive and did not know how to interpret Fox's absence from the video.
"We continue to pray for their safe and speedy release so that they may return to their families and carry on their peaceful work on behalf of all Iraqi detainees," it said in a statement on its website.
"We also hold in our hearts the families of 14,600 Iraqis currently detained illegally by the multinational forces in Iraq who likewise await the release of their loved ones."
Britain's Foreign Office called for the immediate release of the peace activists.
"To release a video of this kind is obviously extremely distressing for the relatives and our thoughts are with them as well as with the victims, who have been held now for more than 100 days," it said in a statement.
"They are peace campaigners dedicated to helping other people and should be freed immediately to spare both them and their families further distress."
Muslim scholars and activists around the world have appealed for the release of the men.
More than 200 foreigners and thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Fifty-four foreign hostages are known to have been killed by their captors.
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lets hope they are released soon
by