A purported Taliban spokesman on Tuesday said a meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and US President George W Bush had “no result.”

The spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Bush and Karzai must accept Taliban demands that militant prisoners be released in exchange for  the lives of 21 South Korean hostages or there will be a “bad result.”

The militants kidnapped 23 Korean aid workers traveling by bus from Kabul to Kandahar on July 19. Two male hostages have been executed. Ahmadi said the Taliban’s demands remain the same. “Bush and Karzai have to accept the Taliban conditions otherwise they will see a very bad result for Korean hostages,” Ahmadi said.

The Afghan and US presidents ruled out making any concessions to the Taliban during their meetings .
In South Korea, relatives of the hostages expressed disappointment  that the presidential summit failed to produce concrete measures to bring the captives home.

“We could barely sleep while waiting for the results of the summit meeting, as we were full of such high hope and expectations that the release and safe return of our family members abducted there is up to the meeting of two leaders,” said Cha Sung-min, a spokesman for relatives of the hostages, at their Saemmul Community Church in Bundang, south of Seoul.

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

New demand

Meanwhile, a report from  Seoul said Taliban militants proposed that some female hostages be exchanged for jailed women supporters of the insurgents, Yonhap news agency said.

The reported new demand by spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, in a telephone interview with the agency, follows Taliban claims that two of the Korean women were gravely ill. Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon denied any serious health problems.