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Another western hostage is seen in the video, the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reports
David Cameron will chair a meeting to discuss the UK's response to a threat by militants to kill a British hostage in a video purporting to show the beheading of a second US journalist.
The Cobra committee will consider the threat from Islamic State, which said the Briton would die unless US air strikes on its forces stopped.
The video posted online purports to show the beheading of Steven Sotloff.
On Tuesday, Downing Street confirmed it was aware that IS had a UK hostage.
Officials said Mr Cameron had known about the situation for some months but no public comment had been made.
The family of the British hostage have asked the media not to release his name.
The video, entitled "A second message to America", was posted online two weeks after IS released a video showing the killing of another US journalist, James Foley.
The British hostage appears at the end of the latest video, which was released on Tuesday but is yet to be verified.
The footage also shows a masked militant with an English accent similar to that of the man who appeared in the video of the beheading of Mr Foley.
Mr Sotloff, 31, who was seized in Syria last year, also appeared in the video of Mr Foley's killing with a threat that he would be next.
Air strikesThe US has launched more than 120 air strikes in Iraq in the past month, in an attempt to help Kurdish forces curb the advance of IS militants.
Extreme Sunni group IS has seized large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in recent months, declaring a new caliphate, or Islamic state.
Britain has not taken military action against IS so far, but Mr Cameron refused to rule out the possibility earlier this week. He is due to set out his views in more detail during Prime Minister's Questions later.
Asked if the latest video would increase pressure on the government to take military action, one Downing Street official said the question was "way ahead of the curve".
The BBC's chief political correspondent Norman Smith said government sources suggest the latest killing and the threat to a Briton will not prompt "a knee jerk response".
But the prime minister is expected to stress to MPs that the latest atrocity underlines his view that this is not a conflict "thousands of miles from home" which can be ignored.
BBC deputy political editor James Landale said there was an "emerging" debate in Westminster about the possibility of British military involvement, with one Conservative MP saying there was now a "rational" and "emotional" case to support such a move.
Former foreign secretary Jack Straw said his "instinct" was for the UK to join US airstrikes in Iraq.
"We should learn from the past, but not be paralysed by it," said Mr Straw, referring to the previous conflict in Iraq.
Analysis, BBC political correspondent Robin Brant
All those around the table at Wednesday morning's Cobra emergency committee meeting, which leads responses to national security issues and crises, will know that a British man being held hostage by the group known as Islamic State could be next to be killed.
On Monday, the prime minister told MPs he hadn't ruled out possible future military action against IS.
Some on the Conservative side will feel that is now needed.
The immediate concern for Mr Cameron will be trying to prevent the death of the British hostage IS has named as its next potential victim.
If the government fails to do that the pressure may mount for the UK to move from a humanitarian and surveillance role over Iraq to an offensive role - joining airstrikes alongside the Americans.
Mr Straw told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the issue of the British hostage should be handled in secret.
"You need communication with the hostage takers but not negotiation and there's a very fine line between those two," he said.
Mr Straw also said the government was right to not pay ransoms.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said the killing of Mr Sotloff demonstrated the "murderous barbarism" of IS and showed the group was "a threat which cannot be ignored".
Sir Menzies Campbell, a member of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, said the UK could not negotiate with the militants holding the British hostage.
"What you to ask yourself is whether, if succumbing to this kind of blackmail, things will turn out to be better in the end," he said.
"For the moment I don't think there's any other answer to that question than to say 'No'."
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