Taliban rebels on Sunday ruled out more talks with the Afghan government over their remaining 22 South Korean hostages and pressed for the release of militant prisoners as the only way out of the crisis.
An Afghan team that was supposed to have held more negotiations with the Taliban on Saturday could not reach the group because of security concerns in Ghazni province, provincial sources said.
The team hoped to persuade the insurgents to free without condition the Christian volunteers they kidnapped from a bus 10 days ago in Ghazni, south of Kabul. A deputy interior minister on Saturday said that force might be used if talks fail.
Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, on Sunday warned against use of force and pressed for the freedom of the rebel prisoners as the main condition for the release of the Koreans.
“There is no need for further talks. We have given the government a list of Taliban prisoners who should be released and that is our main demand,’’ he told Reuters by telephone. “The government needs to deliberate on it and if it wants to use force, then it will jeopardise the lives of the hostages and the Taliban will resist till the last gasp of their breath,’’ he added.
Eighteen of the remaining hostages are female  and are being held in   groups at various locations.
A South Korean special envoy was expected to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai to try to speed up the hostages’ release.
After coming under harsh criticism for freeing five Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of an Italian hostage in March, Karzai ruled out any deal with the Taliban.
The Taliban are still holding one German and four of his Afghan colleagues who were abducted from a neighbouring province a day before the Koreans. Another German seized alongside them was later found dead with gunshot wounds.
The abduction of the Koreans is the largest kidnapping of foreigners by the Taliban since U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the movement’s radical Islamic government in 2001.
It comes amid increase of violence in the past 18 months, the bloodiest period since Taliban’s removal.

Deadline set for today
Kabul, Reuters: Taliban leaders set 0730 GMT (3:30 a.m. EST) on Monday as the last deadline for the Korean hostages, a rebel spokesman said on Sunday, and said the group will start killing the captives if Taliban prisoners were not freed by then.
"Since the talks between us, the Kabul administration and Korean govt have reached deadlock and they are not honest ... so, we will start killing the hostages if they do not start releasing our prisoners by Monday at 12 o'clock," Qari Mohammad Yousuf said.