KABUL (AFP) - Islamic militants holding three foreign UN workers said they expected to hold fresh talks with the Afghan government while President Hamid Karzai expressed hope the trio would be released "very soon".
"We expect another meeting tomorrow (Wednesday) at around 10:00 am (0530 GMT)," Sayed Khaled, who claims to speak for Jaishul Muslimeen (Army of Muslims), told AFP.
Talks began Sunday in southern Kandahar province between Afghan officials and the group, which has links to the hardline Taliban regime ousted in late 2001.
The group, which has set and broken a series of deadlines for the killing of its captives, handed over a list of 26 prisoners it wants to swap for the hostages.
A second round of negotiations had been due on Tuesday.
"If this (Wednesday) meeting results and we reach an agreement the prisoners will be released afterwards but it would be premature to comment on things that have not happened," Khaled told AFP late Tuesday.
Annetta Flanigan from Northern Ireland, Shqipe Habibi from Kosovo, and Angelito Nayan, a diplomat from the Philippines, were snatched from their vehicle in busy lunchtime traffic in Kabul on October 28.
They had been overseeing the war-battered country's first-ever presidential election, won by US-backed incumbent Karzai.
Speaking to CNN in an interview late Tuesday, Karzai said his government was working hard to secure the release of the hostages and he was hopeful the efforts would succeed.
"We're working very hard to have the safe and secure release of the UN workers who have helped us in Afghanistan tremendously," he said.
"We are working on it on a minute-to-minute basis, day and night," he said, declining to go in details.
"Let's hope that they will be free very soon. Let's hope that will happen," Karzai said.
His spokesman earlier said progress had been made towards freeing the trio and two of them had been allowed to call their families overseas.
"Based on indications, based on information that we have, there is hope that the case would be resolved, Inshallah (God willing)," spokesman Jawed Ludin told a regular news conference.
"I received information indicating that progress has been made in this regard," he added, declining to give further details because of the "sensitivity" of the case.
Officials confirmed comments by Habibi's brother in Kosovo late Monday that she had managed to call a friend in her home town to say she was fine and hoped to be reunited with her loved ones soon.
"Shqipe said that she is in good health and asked us not to be worried about her. She said that the kidnappers are not maltreating her," her brother Agim told journalists.
Ludin said Habibi and Flanigan had been allowed to contact their families but gave no details.
However he expressed concerns about the health of Nayan, who reportedly suffers from a kidney problem.
The Philippines said it was coordinating with the United Nations and the Afghan government over the case, while Nayan's family appealed to the kidnappers to free him.
Karzai said the kidnapping was "very un-Afghan."
"The Afghan people have become very angry at it. Some Afghans have actually volunteered to be taken hostage in place of the UN workers."
A Kabul businessman and five family members offered Tuesday to swap places with the hostages or pay a ransom if necessary, the interior ministry said.
"We appreciate his feeling. We ask the kidnappers to respect the feeling of these brave Afghans and release the hostages," said ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal.
On Monday four Afghan journalists aged between 25 and 28 offered to swap places with the hostages.
11/09/2004 - 19:08 GMT - AFP