Another Release for Britain’s McCarthy : Transition: The former hostage ends his recuperation at base. He pays tribute to his companions still held in Lebanon.

Freed British hostage John McCarthy on Saturday paid tribute to his former fellow prisoners in Lebanon, then left the British air base where he spent eight days recovering after more than five years in captivity.

“My greatest hope is to continue our friendship in freedom together,” the 34-year-old TV producer said in a farewell before leaving the Royal Air Force base at Lyneham. “I hope (it) will be soon.”

Doctors said McCarthy is remarkably well and has passed extensive physical and psychological tests since arriving at the base Aug. 8 after being freed by his Islamic Jihad captors in Beirut. He was treated for a condition that made the little finger of his right hand crooked.

McCarthy was flown from Lyneham, 80 miles west of London, to Northolt, near the capital, the Ministry of Defense said. He was whisked away in a private car, and his destination from there was not disclosed.

At Lyneham, he saluted other Westerners who had shared his captivity in Beirut.

Church of England envoy Terry Waite is “a man with great strength of spirit and purpose. A man of great courage,” McCarthy said.

American journalist Terry A. Anderson has “enormous personal warmth, a great sensitivity to the moods and needs of other people, and fierce loyalty. . . .”

Of U.S. academic Thomas M. Sutherland, McCarthy said: “His gentleness, patience and his love of life saw me through many dark hours.”

Those three men remain in Lebanon, where McCarthy was held for five years.

In other developments Saturday:

* Israel offered to allow the Red Cross to visit Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, a Shiite Muslim leader whose freedom has been demanded by the hostage-holders, if reciprocal visits to Israelis held in Lebanon are allowed.

The offer came from Uri Lubrani, Israel’s top hostage negotiator, who reiterated that Israel is ready to make “gestures” in exchange for information on seven Israeli servicemen missing in Lebanon.

So far, Israel has prevented Red Cross delegations from visiting Obeid, who is being held in a prison in Israel. He was kidnaped by Israeli commandos in 1989.

* In Tehran, Abbas Moussawi, the leader of Hezbollah, believed to be an umbrella group for the hostage-takers, met Saturday with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, Tehran Radio said.

* In Germany, the magazine Der Spiegel said the government is considering how it might exchange two Shiite terrorist brothers, Mohammed Ali and Abbas Ali Hamadi, imprisoned in Germany, for two German hostages held in Lebanon.

A government spokesman, asked about the report, said it was just speculation.

U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar has said the two terrorists should not be part of any hostage deal.