Egypt is in "intensive contacts" with the Iraqi government to retrieve the body of a kidnapped Egyptian contractor who was found dead on Saturday in northern Iraq, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported Sunday.

"Egypt has started intensive contacts with the Iraqi authorities to retrieve the body of an Egyptian hostage who was shot dead by his kidnappers and whose body was found yesterday," MENA said, quoting a diplomatic source.

An official memo had been sent by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to the Iraqi diplomatic mission in Cairo, asking Iraqi government to help recover the body of Ibrahim al-Sayed al-Hilali as soon as possible.

The bullet-riddled body of Hilali, 46, was found on the roadside in Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad.

Hilali, a contractor working for the Americans, was abducted on Friday night when unknown gunmen raided his house in Tikrit and took him away.

No organizations or groups claimed responsibility for the abduction and murder, the police said.

Source: Xinhua