Taliban leaders and South Korean officials were continuing negotiations by telephone over the fate of the remaining 19 hostages yesterday, but no new face-to-face talks had been planned, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.

Two South Korean women kidnapped by the Taliban in mid-July were freed on Monday on a desert road outside Ghazni into Red Cross custody, the first significant breakthrough in the hostage drama. Two male South Korean captives were executed by gunfire in late July.

The South Korean Embassy said the two women were transferred from the US base at Ghazni to a safe place in "our care," and that they were in good condition, awaiting a flight home "very soon."

Franz Rauchenstein, an official with the International Committee of the Red Cross, said officials were ready to host more talks at the office of the Afghan Red Crescent in Ghazni, but that the two sides were talking by telephone for now. Two Taliban leaders and South Korean officials met at the office for direct talks on Friday and Saturday.

"The parties are in talks (over the phone) by themselves," Rauchenstein said. "We stand ready to play the role of neutral intermediary for the release of the next 19 hostages and we are urging the two parties to make it a short process in the interest of the hostages."

Rauchenstein said he had no information about the next steps that will happen.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said the two Taliban negotiators are authorized by their leadership to change and reduce the list of prisoners they want freed in exchange for the remaining South Korean hostages.

A South Korean Embassy official said its delegates in Ghazni are "still maintaining negotiation channels" with the Taliban leaders, but he declined to give further details of the ongoing negotiations.

He said the two women are in the care of South Koreans in Afghanistan, and authorities are now arranging flights to take them home.

"They got medical checks, and nothing serious happened," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of embassy policy. "They are in good condition."

Last week's talks apparently led to the release of the two women, who on Monday were driven to a US base in Ghazni. The US military refused to release any details about the women.

It was likely that the women were flown to the US base at Bagram, where the South Korean military runs a hospital.

A spokesman for the hard-line militants said they released the women as a show of goodwill because negotiations were going well. Qari Yousef Ahmadi also reiterated the militants' demand that Taliban prisoners be released in exchange for the remaining 19 hostages.

(China Daily via agencies August 15, 2007)