Taliban ready to swap female hostages for prisoners

KABUL: Taliban on Tuesday expressed readiness to swap all South Korean female hostages with their women supporters held in Afghan and US military detention centres, Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf said.

"We offer to exchange all the Korean females with those Taliban women supporters who have been languishing in Afghan government prisons and US military detention centres in Kandahar and Bagram," Ahmadi told Xinhua from an unknown location.

However, he did not specify the number of women who have been held by authorities in Afghanistan for supporting the Taliban.

Taliban guerrillas kidnapped 23 South Korean aid workers in the central Ghazni province on the Kabul-Kandahar highway late last month and have executed two hostages, both men.

Eighteen South Korean women and three men have been in Taliban captivity since their abduction nearly three weeks ago.

The Taliban have demanded release of eight Taliban prisoners from Afghan jails and withdrawal of the 200-strong South Korean contingent from Afghanistan for the release of the hostages.

The militants have also warned that they would kill the hostages if their demands were not met.

However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his US counterpart President George W. Bush have ruled out concessions to the militants for the release of the hostages.