The abducted officer, Steve Lesniak, who is reported to be head of security at the United States Embassy in Georgetown, was released after 10 hours in captivity following a ransom payment of some US$10,000 by "a lady friend".

By mutual agreement between the Guyana Government and the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, it was learnt from a telephone interview yesterday, there would be no information to the media at this stage about the nature of the mission of the U.S. probe team.

But "full cooperation, including unrestricted access to all relevant sources, is assured", according to one government official.

A major area of concern, according to American and local security personnel, since both the Guyana and U.S. governments were opposed to any ransom being paid, is who authorised it and were involved in the actual payment transaction.

The probe under way would include questioning of Lesniak and the claimed "lady friend" in the payment to the kidnappers at their hideout in Buxton village.

Buxton has been linked with a spate of armed kidnappings, killings, robberies and criminal violence over the past year.

Lesniak is said to have been the 18th kidnapped victim, among them two nationals of Trinidad and Tobago who were also freed unhurt after ransom payments.

Both the Guyana Government and the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown maintained yesterday an official "no comment" attitude on the kidnapping saga that occurred at Lusignan some 10 miles east of the capital while Lesniak was playing golf on Saturday morning.

One top official close to the probe into the circumstances of the kidnapping incident said there was now "deep concern by both sides" (U.S. and Guyana governments) about the dangerous precedent that the ransom payment may have created, particularly for the foreign diplomatic community in the country.

Security forces personnel have also disclosed, on the basis of anonymity, that contrary to earlier reports, there was "no big ransom payment like US$300,000 (about Guyana $53 million) but more like US$10,000".

Police Commissioner Floyd McDonald himself has declined to offer any information about either the security operations that were in place to free Lesniak, or the circumstances of his unharmed release with the controversial ransom payment.

Meanwhile, it was learnt yesterday that the Guyana Government has decided to request the Attorney General's Office to fast-track draft anti-kidnapping legislation.

It would include, as is being done in Trinidad and Tobago, a penalty clause for persons found guilty of negotiating ransom payments while the security forces were engaged in activities to track down kidnappers and their victims.

Sources said that on Saturday, President Bharrat Jagdeo met U.S. Embassy officials, the heads of the Police Force and the Army, Home Affairs Minister, Mr. Ronald Gajraj and Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, to discuss the situation.