Tokyo launched a major diplomatic offensive to save the life of hostage Shosei Koda, but because it had no means of negotiating directly with the al-Qaida-linked group that most likely took him, it had to rely on the efforts of a third nation, sources said.

The attempt ultimately failed because the group led by Osama bin Laden ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian believed responsible for a spate of foreigner kidnappings and beheadings, was so vehemently anti-American.

The government was alerted to the crisis last Wednesday when an Islamic Web site message posted at 2:07 a.m. showed video footage of Koda, 24, with his black-masked captors. The decapitated body of the Fukuoka Prefecture native was found in central Baghdad late Saturday, following a false report the day before that his body had turned up in Balad, just north of Baghdad. It was flown to Kuwait on Tuesday.

As soon as the crisis broke, Tokyo got in contact with the governments of 25 countries, some in the Middle East. A number of countries contacted had experience negotiating with hostage-takers. By early Friday, the government had what senior Foreign Ministry officials called ``highly reliable information'' that Koda was still alive.

Sources say the optimism was based on information provided by a third nation whose intelligence organization had succeeded in contacting Koda's captors. The intelligence relayed to Tokyo was that Koda was first taken hostage in Baghdad by a group specializing in snatching foreign nationals from the streets and holding them for ransom.

The group apparently handed him over to al-Zarqawi when it realized Koda would not fetch a big ransom.

The foreign intelligence agency, which the sources did not specify, informed Tokyo that it was in direct negotiations with the captors.

Tokyo was also told that Koda was being moved around a lot. Areas north of Baghdad as well as Balad were mentioned.

The government immediately requested the U.S. military to search for Koda in those areas.

When the U.S. military contacted Tokyo early Saturday that a body matching Koda's physical characteristics had been found, the Foreign Ministry informed ruling coalition leaders that Koda had likely been executed.

Japanese officials later confirmed in Kuwait that the body was someone else's.

In hindsight, government sources said, the attempt to negotiate through the third nation failed because the group was so vehemently anti-U.S. It presumably linked Japan's deployment of troops to the U.S. war effort without giving consideration to the humanitarian nature of the mission.

``We tried through a variety of means but met many more difficulties than in the April incidents,'' said Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, in reference to two groups of Japanese taken hostage but released in April with help from Islamic cleric leaders.(IHT/Asahi: November 3,2004)