KABUL (AFP) - Islamic militants holding three foreign UN election workers in Afghanistan were locked in negotiations with groups trying to secure their release, as Muslim leaders condemned the kidnapping.
The abductors and sources close to the Afghan government told AFP negotiations were continuing, although the status of those talks was unclear as a Wednesday deadline for the hostages' killings approached.
"I can confirm that talks are going on today," said Sayed Khaleed, a spokesman for the Jaishul-Muslimeen (Army of Muslims) group that abducted the three United Nations employees from their vehicle in Kabul last Thursday.
"Any details about the nature of the talks and the number of people involved is ahead of time. But we expect the results soon."
Khaleed hinted that Jaishul-Muslimeen may consider compromising on its demands, which include the departure of all foreign forces and UN employees from Afghanistan and the release by the United States of all Taliban prisoners.
"We have our own conditions and the government has their conditions. If they accept our conditions then we will be ready to accept some of their conditions as well," Khaleed told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"If talks work then of course there will be hope for the lives of the hostages."
Sources close to the government said various groups were talking with the abductors in a bid to win the hostages' release.
But those involved in organising the negotiations did not want to give any details or reveal who was involved in the talks, due to the sensitivity of the situation.
The three hostages are Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Habibi from Kosovo and Filipino Angelito Nayan. They were helping to arrange Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election on October 9.
US-backed interim president Hamid Karzai won the poll in a landslide.
Jaishul-Muslimeen has said it will kill the hostages at midday (0730 GMT) on Wednesday if its demands are not met.
Khaleed reaffirmed on Tuesday that the deadline had not been extended, as some media reports have suggested, but there is hope in Kabul that an extension may be granted.
"Wednesday is still the deadline and there has been no change up to now. If we extend the deadline, the decision will be made by our leader, Akbar Agha, and he will announce that," Khaleed said.
Afghanistan's influential Ulema Council of Muslim scholars condemned the kidnappings and called for the immediate release of the three.
"Islam is (a) religion of peace and kindness and those who resort to such actions must know that their actions can only defame Islam and have no other result," the Ulema Council said in a resolution released to the media.
"The Ulema Council of Afghanistan seriously asks those who have taken these people hostage to release them."
Muslim leaders in the Philippines also appealed for Nayan and the other two hostages to be released.
"In the spirit of Ramadan, the holiest month in the Islamic calendar... we appeal to the Muslim captors to free the Filipino captive," the Philippines' Office of Muslim Affairs said in a statement.
Jaishul-Muslimeen is an obscure splinter group of the fundamentalist Taliban militia, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until late 2001 when US-led forces toppled them for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network.
The US military publicly wrote off the Taliban as a major threat after they failed to fulfil promises to disrupt the presidential election.
But an 18,000-strong military coalition, dominated by 16,000 US troops, is still in Afghanistan hunting Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters.
Another 9,000 peacekeepers from around 30 countries are patrolling mainly in Kabul as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
11/02/2004 - 12:57 GMT - AFP