BBC's Gaza reporter is still alive, says Abbas

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said yesterday he had been given confirmation that the kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston was alive.

On a trip to Sweden, Mr Abbas indicated he knew who was holding Mr Johnston, seized by gunmen on 12 March. "Our intelligence services have confirmed to me that he's alive. I want to acquire his release alive. Therefore it is taking some time."

Mr Abbas's declaration provided the most concrete hope for Mr Johnston's safe release since a claim last Sunday by a previously unknown Gaza group that it had killed the BBC reporter.

Mr Johnston's father, Graham, said yesterday: "This is the news I've been waiting to hear and I don't think the Palestinian President would say this unless he was convinced it was true. But we still don't have proof of life. That's what I want desperately."

The BBC also welcomed the report, but added that it wanted "firm evidence of Alan's well-being and his immediate release".

Mr Abbas's remarks followed a call by the Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti from his Israeli jail for Mr Johnston's release. Mr Barghouti is one of the most popular figures in the movement.

The Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas told the Dutch TV station RTL-4 that Mr Johnston's captors did not have political motives but rather wanted "personal demands" met in exchange for the journalist.

The Foreign Press Association in Israel, representing journalists working in Israel and the occupied territories, said a resolution by Britain's National Union of Journalists to boycott Israeli goods ran "counter to core journalistic values".