Mexico City, Jan 27 (IANS): The family of a Mexican reporter who has been missing since Jan 2 and was declared dead by the authorities, has asked for DNA proof of his identity, a media report said Tuesday.

Jorge Sanchez, son of the abducted journalist Moises Sanchez, said he and his family have doubts that the body officials claimed to be the victim's is really his father's.

"I checked the body carefully and we're not sure," Xinhua news agency quoted the son Monday as telling prominent Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui who runs a popular daily radio news programme.

Moises Sanchez was taken from his home in the town of Medellin, in Mexico's Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, by armed gunmen, who also took his computer, camera and cellphone.

Officials announced late Sunday that they had found Sanchez's badly decomposed body, and a police officer, Clemente Noe Rodriguez, had confessed to kidnapping and killing the reporter, aided by others.

The officer stated in his confession that Medellin's Mayor, Omar Cruz Reyes, ordered the killing in retaliation for critical articles on crime and insecurity in the city.

According to a non-governmental organisation, Sanchez is the 15th journalist assassinated in his state in recent years.