Deletes reference to government spokesman in paragraph 10. The government spokesman clarified remarks made on Tuesday when he said up to 50 were held and about 20 released. He said those released were part of that 50, not an additional number. (Adds Maliki comment, family quotes)

By Claudia Parsons

BAGHDAD, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister played down a mass kidnap of civil servants in which many may still be missing on Wednesday and which has put further strain on his government to disband militias involved in sectarian violence.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said most of the dozens of hostages seized at a Higher Education Ministry building in central Baghdad on Tuesday had been freed.

But amid conflicting reports of how many were seized in the first place, employees' families said at least several of their relatives were still missing and they feared for their lives.

"What happened was not terrorism, rather it was due to dispute and conflict between militias from one side or another," Maliki said in televised remarks. He later said the government's response had been strong and vowed to catch those responsible.

Under pressure from Washington to disband militias, Maliki has insisted the main threat to Iraq's security comes from minority Sunni Arab insurgents and says he will deal with militias loyal to his Shi'ite Islamist allies in his own time.

Senior police officers were detained and quizzed over the raid, the latest such kidnap carried out by gunmen in police uniform in which complicity is suspected between the security forces and sectarian Shi'ite militia groups.

In a speech at Baghdad University, apparently timed to allay academics' fears for their security, Maliki said universities would remain open and should be free of sectarian influence.

"Most of the hostages have been released and we will pursue those who were behind this," Maliki said.

The White House, determined to build up Iraq's security forces so it can hand over responsibility for security, will be looking for an explanation of what happened as it reviews strategy under domestic pressure to bring U.S. troops home.

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An official at the prime minister's media office said around 40 hostages had been in the hands of the kidnappers by Tuesday evening and "most of them have been released".

However a spokesman for the Higher Education Ministry reiterated on Wednesday at least 100 men were seized. Spokesman Basil al-Khatib said around 40 had been freed, including 20 released within hours of the kidnap.

"They beat us and insulted us and after that they freed us," he quoted the Shi'ite assistant manager of the building, Yahya Alwan, as saying after he was released on Tuesday afternoon.

Tareq Hassan said he had not heard from his brother Jabar, a Sunni, since he was seized from his office. He said others were in the same position: "I don't know if he's alive or dead."

The father of another Sunni hostage said: "We're already receiving mourners at our home.

"Every day I used to watch the news and hear about all these bodies found. I feared the day would come for my son," said the man, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisals.

"The last time I saw him was in our garden when he came to visit me. I'm sure the next place I see him will be the morgue."

Amid suspicions of police complicity in the latest and biggest mass kidnapping, the interior minister hauled in police chiefs on Tuesday to explain how dozens of gunmen in police uniforms swept into the ministry annexe and rounded up hostages.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said the head of the Karrada section of the police and four other officers had been arrested.

A car bomb on Wednesday killed 12 people and wounded 33 at a fuel station near Iraq's Interior Ministry in central Baghdad, police and Interior Ministry sources said. A U.S. soldier and three marines were killed in western Iraq on Tuesday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said neither Iran nor Syria appeared interested in helping stabilise Iraq or the Middle East and played down the idea of direct talks.

Saying she had spent recent weeks doing some "deep thinking" about U.S. policy in Iraq, Rice said she did not see any easy solutions to the insurgency and sectarian violence.

"I don't think that there are any magic bullets about Iraq. This is a complicated place," she said.

"It will take some combination of Iraqi responsibility for their politics and also ... increased responsibility for their security as well as better help from the neighbours in supporting Iraq as it makes this very difficult transition."

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