Family says UAE diplomat held in Iraq to be freed-TV

DUBAI, May 19 (Reuters) The family of a kidnapped United Arab Emirates diplomat in Iraq said they had heard he would be released today, Al Arabiya television reported.

''We have heard (Naji will be released) but there is no confirmation from UAE authorities or officials,'' the brother of Naji al-Noaimi, Mohammed, told Al Arabiya television by telephone.

The source of the family's information was not immediately clear.

Noaimi was abducted in Baghdad on Tuesday after a short drive from the embassy to visit a colleague. His driver was shot in the kidnapping and later died of his wounds.

Al Jazeera television aired a video yesterday, apparently of Noaimi, from a group calling itself Islam's Banner and said the group had demanded the UAE withdraw its charge d'affaires and close the UAE-based Iraqi television channel al-Fayha within 24 hours.

The footage showed a man, apparently Noaimi, standing next to a wall. No audio could be heard.

The kidnapping and killing of Arab diplomats and embassy workers over the past year by Islamist militants has worsened the already frosty relations between Iraq's US-backed Shi'ite-led government and Sunni-dominated Arab states.

REUTERS SHB ND1832