Hamas official says BBC reporter to be freed today

TEHRAN, June 17 (Reuters) A Hamas official said today that BBC reporter Alan Johnston, abducted in Gaza three months ago, will be released in the next few hours.

''The BBC journalist will be released within the next hours, today,'' Abu Osameh al-Mo'ti, representative of the Palestinian Islamist group in Iran, told reporters in Tehran. He was speaking through an interpreter.

Johnston, the only Western correspondent based full-time in Gaza, was seized on March 12.

His abductors, a little-known group called the Army of Islam, issued a video of him on June 1 in which he said he was in good health and being treated well, although it was not known when the tape was made.

A Hamas official in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said today: ''We can confirm that there are intensive efforts to end the crisis of the abduction of Alan Johnston. There are encouraging indicators that he will be released in the near future. But we cannot determine this in terms of hours.'' A BBC spokesman in London declined to comment.

Hamas said on Friday it was in an advanced stage of negotiations over the release of the British reporter, and al-Mo'ti indicated the talks were still going on. He did not specify how he knew that Johnston would be freed.

He told Reuters Johnston was in good health.

Johnston, from Scotland, turned 45 in captivity last month.

REUTERS SW HS1440