KABUL (AFP) - A Taliban splinter group claiming to be hold three foreign UN workers hostage said it had extended the deadline for their threatened execution at the request of the Afghan government.
"We have extended the deadline and now the final deadline is 10:00 am (0530 GMT)," Akbar Agha, commander of Jaishul Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), told the Afghan Islamic Press.
Agha told the private Pakistan-based news agency that the Afghan government had made contact with the group late Wednesday ahead of a midnight deadline.
He was hopeful that negotiations would begin on Thursday.
The United Nations issued a fresh appeal Thursday for the release of the three.
"One week today Shqipe Habibi, Annetta Flanigan and Angelito Nayan were kidnapped in Kabul," UN spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva told a press conference.
"We ask those who are holding them to release them immediately safe and sound," he added. "We are increasingly concerned for Shqipe, 'Lito' and Annetta. They have been held captive for seven days in extreme conditions and we are very concerned for their welfare."
The newly-emerged Taliban splinter group has demanded the United States release all Taliban prisoners and that foreign forces and the United Nations quit Afghanistan.
Agha on Wednesday had accused the government of trying to buy time by appearing to negotiate.
"I am not satisfied with the negotiations. I believe the government is trying to gain time to rescue the hostages," he was quoted as saying by AIP.
The three hostages -- Annetta Flanigan from northern Ireland, Shqipe Habibi from Serbia's mainly Muslim province of Kosovo, and Angelito Nayan from the Philippines -- were abducted at gunpoint on October 28 from their vehicle in busy lunchtime traffic in Kabul.
They had been helping to oversee Afghanistan's first presidential election.
The Afghan government on Wednesday night appealed to the public to phone in with any information they might have on the captors or their hostages.
"We have put in place a hotline and we want cooperation from the people," interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP.
Mashal had earlier expressed optimism at winning the release of the three election workers, whose abduction has cast a pall over the otherwise peaceful October 9 elections and US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai's victory, which was officially declared on Wednesday.
The kidnappers said Tuesday they were in touch with mediators from the United Nations and had given them a list of Taliban prisoners held in Afghanistan.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, a 9,000-strong peacekeeping force, offered to help rescue the hostages or secure their release.
The 18,000-strong US-led coalition, which has been in Afghanistan since late 2001 hunting, capturing and killing suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters, said it has been monitoring the abduction crisis.
11/04/2004 - 08:17 GMT - AFP