A British woman running an aid agency in Baghdad has been kidnapped by an unidentified armed group.

Margaret Hassan, 52, who was born in Dublin, was snatched early yesterday as she was being driven to work.

Hassan, who is married to an Iraqi and has dual British and Iraqi nationality, was later seen in a video sent by her captors to al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite television network.

The prime minister vowed that the government would do all it could.

"This is someone who has lived in Iraq for 30 years, someone who is immensely respected, someone who is doing their level best to help the country," he said.

"It shows the kind of people we are up against that they are prepared to kidnap somebody like this."