Italy demands Taliban prove kidnapped reporter alive

ROME, Mar 8 (Reuters) Italy demanded the Taliban provide proof today that an Italian reporter kidnapped in Afghanistan three days ago was still alive, as hundreds of protesters gathered in Rome to call for his release.

A Taliban spokesman has said the reporter, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, 52, confessed to spying for British troops after being picked up in the lawless Helmand province on Monday.

His newspaper, La Repubblica, denies this and says the Karachi-born Mastrogiacomo had been writing for them since 1980 and had been in Afghanistan since February 28 on a reporting trip.

Elisabetta Belloni, head of the foreign ministry's crisis unit which handles hostage negotiations, said it had not received any proof that Mastrogiacomo was alive, needed before any talks got underway for his release.

She said the government had also had no communication with he kidnappers and did not even know their identity, but added officials had no reason yet to doubt that Mastrogiacomo was in Taliban hands.

''At this point, we still don't know anything for sure. We don't have clear open channels,'' Belloni told reporters.

Friends, relatives and colleagues gathered outside Rome's city hall to call for Mastrogiacomo's immediate release, saying it was impossible that he would have confessed to being a spy.

They hung an enlarged photo of Mastrogiacomo down the side of the city hall, above the main square, piazza del Campidoglio.

''There is no confession at all. It's absolutely ridiculous,'' said Ezio Mauro, the chief editor at La Repubblica.

''Daniele is there to work, as everybody knows.'' Mastrogiacomo's brother, Alessandro, said the veteran war reporter knew Afghanistan well and had long travelled to the world's most dangerous spots to cover the news.

''He has worked there a lot and he has always been very interested in the Middle East and in the areas hit by the most recent conflicts,'' he said.

Italian journalist Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped in Helmand in October and held for three weeks. And a crew working for al Jazeera television -- three Afghans and a Briton -- were held overnight last month while travelling from neighbouring Kandahar to Helmand.

The kidnapping comes at a difficult time for Prime Minister Romano Prodi, who was forced to resign briefly last month after a Senate rebellion over his decision to keep troops in Afghanistan.

He won a vote today in the lower house of parliament to keep Italy's 1,900 troops there, but risks another backlash to the unpopular mission later this month in the Senate.

REUTERS AKJ RAI2022