LONDON, December 09, SPA -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Sunday demanded the release of five Britons being held hostage by an Iraqi group, the Associated Press reported. Brown said his government would do everything in its powerto win the freedom of the four security guards and onecomputer expert who were seized from a government compound in Baghdad about six months ago. The men's captors released a videotape of one of the fivevictims Tuesday coupled with the demand that Britain pullall its forces from Iraq. It was the first public proofthat any of them were alive. «We will do everything in our power to secure ourobjective, which is the immediate release of thehostages,» Brown said in a televised statement. «(Iraqi)Prime Minister (Nouri al-)Maliki and his ministers andothers are doing a tremendous amount to secure the releaseof the hostages and I want to thank them for what they havedone.»--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/507606