Afghan gunmen seize Italian journalist - report

KABUL, Oct 14 (Reuters) Gunmen today kidnapped an Italian photojournalist in southern Afghanistan, accusing him of spying, an Afghan news agency reported.

The Pajhwok agency named the journalist simply as Gabriele and reported a call to Torsello's mobile phone had been answered by someone who said: ''We are the Taliban and we have abducted the foreigner on charges of spying.'' The Italian military in Rome said a London-based journalist, Gabriele Torsello, had been working in southern Afghanistan and could not be contacted at present.

Attempts by Reuters to reach Torsello on his mobile phone failed.

The Pajhwok quoted Gholam Mohammad, who said he had been travelling with the journalist, as saying they were stopped by five gunmen on the road from the capital of Helmand province to the capital of neighbouring Kandahar province.

Torsello's Web site says he is in Helmand and available for assignments.

Helmand and Kandahar, in the Taliban's southern heartland, are two of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces and have been the scene of heavy fighting in the past few months between Taliban guerrillas and NATO forces.

Hundreds of people have been killed in the violence.

The Italian embassy in Kabul said it had not heard of a kidnapping and Afghan officials, many involved in functions for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, could not be reached immediately for comment.

The reported kidnapping occurred a week after two German journalists were shot dead in the relatively safe north of Afghanistan on their way to Bamiyan, site of two famed giant Buddhas blown up by the Taliban in 2001.

Kidnappings, both for criminal and political reasons, are becoming increasingly common across Afghanistan five years after the then Taliban government was toppled by a US-led invasion.

REUTERS SHB RN2227