Five Britons kidnapped in Iraq

LONDON: Britain's top-secret crisis unit was expected to meet for a second straight day on Wednesday as the government scrambles to secure the release of five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad in broad daylight.

Men wearing police uniforms abducted the group, four private security guards and the management consultant they were guarding, at gunpoint on Tuesday morning from a finance ministry building in the heart of the Iraqi capital. 

The British government's Cobra committee, which can feature senior ministers and intelligence chiefs and meets on occasions such as the July 2005 London suicide bombings, was likely to convene again on Wednesday, officials said.

"On previous occasions, it meets on at least a daily basis," a Foreign Office spokesman said.    "We're working hard on the ground, we're liaising with the Iraqi authorities. We have to just monitor things very closely."

"We have to establish the facts and there will be all sorts of decisions taken." 

Prime Minister Tony Blair is on a farewell tour of Africa and a spokeswoman for his office said he was 'fully aware' of what was happening, but would not comment on whether he had joined Tuesday's Cobra meeting remotely.