Media reports quoted Prime Minister Helen Clark as saying the identity of the dead man would not be released until all next of kin had been notified. However, she said the man had not lived in New Zealand for some years and his wife and family were resident overseas.

It is believed he was working either for the oil industry or on a reconstruction project at the time of the drive-by shooting, which also claimed the lives of a South African engineer and their Iraqi driver.

A Perth oil man was killed in Saudi Arabia several weeks ago.