Release of CBS Journalist Delayed

The negotiations for the release of the CBS journalist have stalled because the kidnappers and the negotiators cannot agree to a time and place for the the journalist's release.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Negotiations to free a CBS News journalist seized in the southern Iraqi city of Basra a week ago are being held up over discussions about how he should be released, a leading Shi'ite militia group said on Sunday.

The British journalist, who has not been named, and his interpreter were seized from a hotel in the centre of Basra last week. The interpreter was freed on Wednesday and negotiators had been confident the journalist would also be quickly released.

Asked what the stumbling block was, Hareth al-Athari, a spokesman for Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr, told Reuters: "Finding the right place and the right time."

....

Athari, the head of the cleric's Basra office which has been involved in the negotiations, said the kidnappers were wary of being caught by police when handing over the reporter.

He added the kidnappers' identities were still not known.

Basra has been at the centre of tensions between Sadr's powerful Mehdi Army militia and supporters of a Shi'ite rival, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, as both seek to gain control of the mainly Shi'ite south and its oil wealth.