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GHAZNI, Afghanistan - An Afghan negotiator again ruled out on Saturday an exchange of Taliban prisoners to free 21 South Korean hostages, whose families made a new appeal for their release.
Negotiations over the church aid workers were being conducted mainly by a South Korean delegation, said parliamentarian Mahmood Gailani, who last week described the Afghan side's talks with Taliban as "stuck."
"They can only talk about money, ransom," he told AFP, referring to the militants. "Not only the Americans are opposed to an exchange of prisoners, it's against the policy of the government."
The Taliban originally kidnapped 23 South Koreans but killed two of them and have threatened to execute more of the hostages, whose health is said to be deteriorating, unless at least eight of their men are released from jail.
The United States was the leading critic of a prisoner exchange in March that freed an Italian hostage but is now seen as having encouraged a recent rash of abductions, some said to have been carried out by criminals.
A 62-year-old German engineer is being held, along with four Afghans, by separate militants who are believed to be closely linked to the Taliban. He was seized July 18 with another German, who collapsed and was then shot dead.
Seoul last week sent eight senior legislators to lobby Washington for help over the hostage crisis, which is likely to feature in talks due to start Sunday between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W. Bush.
The Taliban said after their latest deadline expired Wednesday they had not killed any more hostages because they were hoping for results from talks with the South Koreans.
"They told us that they are in negotiations with the Afghan and American governments to convince them to free Taliban prisoners in exchange for the South Korean hostages," spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said Friday.
Ahmadi said a Taliban delegation was ready to meet the South Koreans face-to-face -- in another country if necessary as long as the United Nations guaranteed the "safe return" of its negotiators.
The UN mission in Kabul was meeting Saturday about the hostage crisis but said it had not been contacted directly about the issue.
The South Korean embassy meanwhile said it could not report any progress in the standoff.
The aid workers, most of whom are women, are said to be ill after being held for more than two weeks in sweltering southern Afghanistan where they were captured July 19.
Two are said to be in a serious condition, but the Taliban have refused to allow an Afghan medical team to see them.
The families of the hostages visited a mosque in Seoul Saturday to appeal to Muslims to help free them.
"These children went to act on their love beyond race, religion and borders," the group said in a letter delivered to the mosque.
The second hostage to be shot by the Taliban, 29-year-old Shim Sung-Min, was buried on Saturday. The pastor who had headed the mission was shot dead days before him.
The Taliban, linked to Al-Qaeda, have tried to use the kidnapping of foreign nationals to pressure the more than 30 countries with troops in Afghanistan to pull out.
The tactic is part of a broad strategy against Karzai's government, which replaced the Taliban administration driven from power in 2001 by a US-led coalition.
The militants are also behind almost daily bloodshed.
In a new attack, four policemen were killed late Friday when a bomb blamed on the Taliban blew up their vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, police said. - AFP/ir
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