DAVID Cameron has warned fellow Nato leaders that paying ransoms to free hostages such as Scottish-educated David Haines, held by Islamic State (IS) militants, was "not the way to defeat terrorism".

At the leaders' working dinner at Cardiff Castle last night, the Prime Minister argued that paying out millions of pounds to extremists simply fuelled terrorist violence and the taking of more hostages. His comments follow the executions by the IS of US journalists Steven Sotloff and James Foley and the threat to kill kidnapped aid worker Mr Haines, 44, a father from Perth.

"It is utterly self-defeating. It is worse than self-defeating, it is actually a risk to us back at home," he declared, calling on world leaders to abide by an undertaking they gave at last year's G8 summit in Northern Ireland not to pay ransoms. While the UK appears to be moving nearer towards airstrikes against IS terrorists, Mr Cameron made it clear none were imminent.