A forensics team has found the remains of a British journalist kidnapped by Palestinian militants in Lebanon 24 years ago, according to the British embassy.

British experts excavating a site in the eastern Bekaa Valley last week dug up two bodies, and a British embassy spokeswoman said that DNA tests confirmed that one of the bodies was that of Alec Collett, who was abducted in 1985 during Lebanon's civil war.

Collett's widow has been informed, and the United Nations was transporting the body home.

Collett, then 64, was on assignment in Palestinian refugee camps for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency when he was abducted in Beirut. The following year, a group belonging to Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Nidal said it killed him in retaliation for US air raids on Libya.

In April 1986, a video was sent to a Beirut television station supposedly showing Collett being hanged, but UN officials said that it was impossible to factually determine whether or not it was actually him.

A representative for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon confirmed the news and said that the UN leader hopes the findings will provide "closure" for Collett's family.