KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, 8 August 2007 — The Taleban yesterday offered to swap women among their 21 South Korean hostages for women Afghan prisoners held on US military bases in Afghanistan.

The Islamist militia’s latest proposal on the hostages, who have been held since mid-July, came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W. Bush vowed not to cut any deal to secure their release.

“If the Afghan government or the Americans agree to free any Afghan women they’ve jailed in (military bases in) Kandahar or Bagram, we’ll free the same number of female hostages,” Taleban spokesman Yousef Ahmadi told AFP.

“We’re ready for such a deal. We don’t know how many women are in Bagram and Kandahar,” he said by phone from an unknown location.

The Afghan government said it was unaware of female prisoners with Taleban links, and a spokeswoman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said it was not known if there were women held on those bases.

The South Koreans, 16 of them women, are believed to be held in southern Ghazni province, where they were kidnapped on July 19. Two male hostages have already been killed.

The latest proposal appeared to be aimed at kick-starting negotiations on the fate of the hostages, which had stalled ahead of Karzai’s visit to the United States.

The Afghan leader has consistently refused to meet Taleban demands in return for the liberty of the hostages, having faced fierce criticism for an earlier deal on an Italian hostage that critics said encouraged further kidnappings.

Ahmadi, the Taleban spokesman, reiterated a murder threat against the Christian aid workers.

“If Karzai and Bush don’t change their position, they’ll be responsible,” he said.

Relatives of the hostages said that summit talks between Bush and Karzai had not made enough effort to save their lives.

Gathered at a church on the outskirts of Seoul, where the aid workers were based, they expressed their disappointment at Monday’s talks, when the leaders insisted there could be no deal with the Taleban extremists.

The families, some weeping, wore paper signs reading “Send them home” and “Set them free” while a spokesman read their statement on television.