The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry on Thursday confirmed the identity of the headless body as that of Georgi Lazov, a Bulgarian truck driver who was kidnapped by an Iraqi militant group.

The ministry said the fingerprints of the body found on July 15 in the Tigris river, north of Baghdad, matched those of Lazov.

Georgi Lazov, 30, and Ivailo Kepov, 32, were kidnapped on June 29 when they were transporting used cars to the city of Mosul.

The Bulgarian Telegraphic Agency (BTA) said Thursday that the Bulgarian government has been collecting information to confirm if Kepov had been killed.

The Al-Jazeera TV channel released a video tape on July 8, showing the kidnapping of the two Bulgarian truck drivers. The kidnappers threatened to kill them unless the US-led allies released all imprisoned Iraqis within 24 hours.

On the evening of July 13, the Al-Jazeera announced that one of the two Bulgarian hostages had been executed. The kidnappers also threatened to kill the second Bulgarian hostage if their demands could not be satisfied.

Bulgaria, a close ally of the United States on the Iraqi war, has nearly 500 soldiers in Karbala, south of Baghdad. The Bulgarian government vowed not to withdraw troops from Iraq despite the execution.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2004)