With Tuesday's deadline of 7:00 pm local time (14:30 GMT) having passed, there was still no progress in talks to secure the release of 23 South Korean hostages held by the Taliban, according to dpa. On Tuesday afternoon, the Taliban had given a list of eight of their comrades serving terms in Afghan jails whom they demanded to be released in exchange for the hostages. But hours later, Waheedullah Mujadidi, who is heading the group of Afghan mediators between the South Korean government and the kidnappers, said the group later withdrew the list as they could not reach an agreement on which prisoners they wanted released. Initially, the group had said it would give a list of 23 prisoners whose release it sought in exchange for the hostages. Meanwhile, another member of the Afghan mediation team told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa there was disagreement among the Taliban in prioritizing the prisoners. "Since they cannot reach an agreement on the prisoner swap, there is a possibility that the kidnappers would accept the ransom offered to them", the official said, adding that he hoped the matter would be resolved by later Wednesday. However, there was no word from the Taliban on whether they had decided to extend the deadline, or why they had failed to submit their list of prisoners. Afghan and Taliban officials had earlier expressed confidence that the negotiations were going well and both sides were optimistic that the matter would be settled soon. Khawaja Mohammad Sedeqi, a member of Afghanistan's lower house of parliament, who is now a member of the team negotiating with the Taliban, had said that productive negotiations were under way. The 18 South Korean women and five men were abducted last week with the Taliban initially demanding the freedom of 23 Taliban prisoners in Afghan government jails. Earlier Sedeqi was quoted by media as saying the kidnappers had demanded 100,000 dollars to allow officials to speak by telephone with the hostages, but Sedeqi later told dpa: "That demand was made by one of the kidnappers, but later the group's leaders rejected any money to be given to them." Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi also said the negotiations were going well, and insisted they were only between the Taliban and the South Korean government. "The Afghan government is not involved, because the Afghans did not want to solve the matter, therefore we gave more time to the Korean government, he said. The Taliban accused Kabul of trying to deceive the South Korean government. "Since the Afghan government has not sincerely tried to solve the problem, this time we are giving another 24 hours to the Korean government to solve the matter," Qari told dpa. South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun has called for calm over the fate of the hostages, saying it was not the time to be "over- optimistic nor prematurely pessimistic about the outcome."
