DUBAI (AFP) - A spokesman for the Taliban said on Saturday that talks to free 21 South Korean hostages will be concluded "today or tomorrow," according to a report by Al-Jazeera television.
"We have great hope that the hostage crisis will resolved today or tomorrow," Qari Bashir, one of the two Taliban negotiators, told journalists at a press conference in Ghazni, Afghanistan.
"The hostages are happy. They have no problems and are completely safe," he added.
Earlier, Bashir told reporters outside the offices of the Afghan Red Crescent Society, where the negotiations are being held with government security, that
"we are optimistic about the result of our talks."
But he reiterated: "The hostages will be freed if the government accepts our demands to free some of prisoners."
The Afghan government has consistently rejected the demand since the group of Christian aid workers was captured in the southern province of Ghazni more than three weeks ago.