Continuing concern for Mr Ken Bigley, the British hostage in Iraq, is casting its shadow over Mr Tony Blair's keynote speech to the Labour Party conference this afternoon.
The prime minister will urge Labour to unite behind a radical agenda in anticipation of a historic third term in office as he seeks to bind his party's wounds over the war in Iraq.
Mr Blair's critically-important speech is being drafted in an atmosphere of considerable dread of news from Iraq.
It comes ahead of Thursday's potentially embarrassing emergency debate about the war on the conference floor while voters go to the polls in the Hartlepool by-election.
The sensitivity to Mr Bigley's plight, and the extent of Mr Blair's difficulty, was underlined last night as aides confirmed that key sections of the speech would not be finalised until close to the point of actual delivery.
Meanwhile, the latest appeal to spare Mr Bigley's life has come from the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, who has asked one of his most senior ministers to work for his release, the Palestinian delegate general to Ireland said last night.
Other Palestinian groups have also appealed through the Arab media for Mr Bigley's release.
The Palestinian delegate general to Ireland, Mr Ali Halimeh, said these groups, who had experience of working with the Government and Irish Non-Governmental Organisations, were motivated to a considerable degree by the fact that Mr Bigley had Irish connections.
Mr Halimeh said Mr Arafat had taken immediate action in response to a letter sent to him by Labour TD Mr Michael D. Higgins last Friday requesting the Palestinian leader to use his good offices and influence in Iraq to help save Mr Bigley.
He himself had also written to the Palestinian President, who he said had previously intervened on behalf of French journalists and Italian aid workers taken hostage.
"President Arafat, through one of his senior Palestinian ministers, made some contacts in Iraq in relation to the issue," Mr Halimeh said. "I hope something will happen."
President Arafat was "an added voice" on behalf of Mr Bigley, and the delegate general said he had seen yesterday the text of the letter from the Palestinian leader to his senior minister.
Mr Ken Bigley's brother, Mr Paul Bigley, said last night Mr Arafat's intervention was "fantastic news" and the biggest breakthrough so far in the bid for the 62-year-old civil engineer to be freed.
He said he had been contacted by a representative of the Palestinian delegate general to Ireland telling him of a personal letter signed by Mr Arafat.
In it he had said he would ask a Palestinian minister who had spent many years in Iraq to follow the matter up, and help in "every way possible".