Speicher was the first US soldier lost in the 1991 Gulf War

The Washington Times newspaper reported that British intelligence officials had informed the Pentagon that Navy Lieutenant Commander Michael Speicher had survived the crash of his jet and been taken to a military prison.

Speicher's F-18 fighter jet was downed in a fireball over Iraq on 17 January 1991 - the first week of the Gulf War.

The British reports also indicated that he had been visited by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's notorious son Uday and senior Iraqi intelligence officials.

British investigators had obtained their information from Iraqi defectors and sources within the country, the paper said.

Mystery

Commander Speicher had originally been listed as "killed in action".

But last year, in an unprecedented move by the US Navy, this definition was changed to "missing in action" following unconfirmed reports that the pilot was still alive.

Iraq has continued to shirk its responsibility to answer many unresolved questions about Commander Speicher's fate

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher

In 1995 US investigators located the crash site in Iraq and determined that the pilot could have ejected safely before the crash.

Iraq had also handed over Speicher's flight suit, the British news agency Press Association reported.

And other reports indicated that a "man-made symbol" had been created at the crash site, possibly as a distress signal, Reuters news agency reported.

Explanation demanded

The US brought up the case of the pilot in talks with the Iraqi delegation at a Geneva meeting of a Tripartite Commission grouping Iraq, the International Red Cross and Gulf War allies last week.

Saddam Hussein: 'Knows what happened to Commander Speicher'

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters that Iraq had never given a satisfactory explanation as to what happened to the pilot.

"Iraq has continued to shirk its responsibility to answer many unresolved questions about Commander Speicher's fate," he said.

Although some military officials stressed caution over the veracity of the reports, others are convinced that the Speicher case must be resolved.

"We are convinced that Saddam Hussein knows what happened to Commander Speicher and for whatever reason he is choosing not to share that information," a defence official told French news agency AFP.

Speicher, who would have been 44 this month, was the first American lost in the Gulf War.

His family have never commented publicly on his case.