Kidnapped Italian journalist may be freed Taliban

SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, Mar 9 (Reuters) The Taliban today said they would free kidnapped Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo if he could prove he was not a spy.

The reporter was picked up in the lawless southern province of Helmand on Monday along with two Afghan colleagues, and the Taliban said he confessed spying for British troops.

Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayat Khan said today they were still questioning Mastrogiacomo and he could be released if he was found innocent.

''There's a good chance that the journalist Daniele came only to report and may not be involved in spying,'' Khan told Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location.

''There's a good chance that the Italian journalist will be released but it will only happen if he's proved innocent. But we won't spare any spy.'' Khan said the Taliban had recovered a video camera, a satellite phone and ''lasers in shampoo bottles'' that could help in air strikes on the Taliban positions. Air strikes are often guided by lasers from troops on the ground.

''We're investigating if the journalist Daniele was involved in bringing lasers in shampoo bottles,'' he added.

The Taliban often executes Afghans it accuses of spying, hanging or shooting them in the head of slitting their throats.

The reporter's newspaper, La Repubblica, denied he was a spy and said the Karachi-born man had been writing for them since 1980 and had been reporting from Afghanistan since February 28.

VETERAN WAR REPORTER The Italian government yesterday demanded the Taliban provide roof that Mastrogiacomo was still alive, as hundreds of protesters gathered in Rome demanding his release.

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

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

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.

His 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 before being released unharmed.

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 plan to keep troops in Afghanistan.

He won a vote yesterday 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 SY DB1245