HEREFORD MP Paul Keetch is urging the Foreign Office to re-open its investigation into the death of a city engineer in Chechnya.

Peter Kennedy was beheaded after being kidnapped while working in the breakaway Russian region. He and three other telephone engineers, including a New Zealander, were starved and beaten before their murder in December, 1998.

A BBC programme due to be broadcast on Wednesday, November 21, at 7.30pm, claims the engineers were murdered by allies of Osama bin Laden.

"It's quite clear this programme has revealed new information, not just about the events that surrounded the kidnap and murders but the level of advice passed on to the men about working in Chechnya," said Mr Keetch, the Liberal Democrats' defence spokesman.

"I'd like the investigation to be re-opened and to see whether a change in the law is needed.

"While politicians and the media might have been aware of how dangerous it was, these men probably did not. They should've had warnings passed on."

Mr Keetch said he also wanted the Metropolitan Police to re-launch their investigation.

Mr Kennedy, aged 46, died alongside colleagues Darren Hickey, 26, of Surrey, Rudi Petschi, 42, of Cullompton in Devon, and New Zealander Stan Shaw, 58. Their heads were left beside a road.

Foreign Office officials are said to be examining reports, which could prove the deaths were part of bin Laden's war on the West.

BBC2's Money Programme claims to have evidence that Arbi Barayev, the Islamic warlord thought to be responsible for their murder, was an ally of bin Laden.

Researchers tracked down a Russian man named Abdurakhman Adukhov who was held with the men.

The hostage, who was spared death and eventually released, said Barayev stood to receive a substantial sum of money for murdering the men from supporters of the holy war.

Adukhov claimed Barayev had been negotiating a ransom with the men's companies but told him that by killing them he stood to receive "not ten, but $30m".

He alleged Barayev, killed by Russian forces in June, said the money would be paid by "Arab friends".

"We haven't yet seen the programme and therefore can't comment on its contents," said a Foreign Office spokesman. "However, if there's new information clearly we'd want to follow this up with the relevant authorities."