OFFICIALS investigating the kidnapping of student hostage Paul Wells were today continuing a search of the area pinpointed as a possible burial site.

The grim discovery of bones in a wooded area of the Jammu Kashmir region was eliminated from the inquiry after they were found to be those of a missing Kashmiri woman.

A Metropolitan Police officer has joined Indian soldiers and FBI officers searching for clues in the troubled Indian province.

But today the Foreign Office said the officer had travelled to the region on Sunday as a matter or routine and not because new evidence had come to light.

A spokesman added: "The purpose of his visit is to liaise with the Indian authorities and to talk to the FBI. This is part of the ongoing inquiry."

Security forces began searches of several areas in the remote Kashmir Valley following fresh leads from captured militants.

Sources at the British High Commission in New Delhi, India, said a number of arrests had been made, the most recent being two militants captured during the last ten days.

He added: "The investigation last week came after they arrested another Kashmiri separatist. "He told the same story as the others, that he was told by his boss that the hostages were killed in December 1995 in Magam and that their bodies were buried in the Kokanag Forest."

James Bowman, director of the Hostages In Kashmir Campaign, said searches had been carried out in the Anatnag and Kokanag areas and that another search would take place during the next couple of days.

However Mr Bowman said he understood that the claims of all the captured militants had so far been discredited.

He added: "There is absolutely no substance in claims that a body has been found which might be one of the four Westerners."

Paul, 26, of Bracken Close, Feniscowles, Blackburn, was captured by Muslim separatists calling themselves Al-Faran along with four other Westerners in July 1995.

Norwegian Hans Christian Ostroe was found beheaded soon afterwards.

Rover has scrapped an advert showing a freed and blindfolded hostage admiring one of its vehicles following complaints from the wife of Paul Wells' fellow captive.

Keith Mangan's wife Julie was one of at least 60 people to make a formal complaint about it.

Bernard Carey, Rover Group's corporate affairs director, said: "If we offended anyone we apologise. We have decided to withdraw the commercial."

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