(AP)
Updated: 2007-08-02 21:45

GHAZNI, Afghanistan - South Korean and Afghan officials searched for a meeting place Thursday after agreeing to hold face-to-face talks with the Taliban to seek the release of the remaining 21 South Korean captives, a chief negotiator said.

Father Shim Jin-pyo, right, and relative Kim Sun-duk of Shim Sung-min, one of the two South Koreans hostages killed in Afghanistan, cry at a hospital in Sungnam, south of Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2007. South Korean lawmakers embarked on a diplomatic mission for the United States on Thursday to urge Washington to help negotiate the release of 21 hostages still held by the Taliban. [AP]

A delegation of eight South Korean lawmakers, meanwhile, departed for Washington on Thursday to urge the United States to help negotiate the release of the hostages. Earlier South Korean diplomatic efforts have failed to bend Afghanistan's refusal to respond to Taliban demands for the release of militant prisoners.

The Taliban captors have agreed to meet with South Korea's ambassador but have not found a suitable place, said Waheedullah Mujadidi, head of a delegation negotiating with the Taliban.

A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, denied the South Koreans had requested direct talks with the militants. But he said the militants would be willing to hold such a meeting in Taliban-controlled territory.

The Taliban "want to negotiate directly with the Koreans because the Kabul administration is not sincere about releasing the Taliban prisoners," Ahmadi told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Two of the 23 South Koreans kidnapped on July 19 have been killed. But after another deadline passed Wednesday, Ahmadi said the remaining hostages were still alive.

On Wednesday, Afghan army helicopters dropped leaflets warning citizens of upcoming military action in Ghazni province, where the church group volunteers were kidnapped while traveling by bus from Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar.

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