Italy in talks to free Taliban hostage-minister

LISBON, Mar 12 (Reuters) Italy is in talks to secure the release of an Italian reporter kidnapped by the Taliban a week ago in southern Afghanistan and accused of being a spy, Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said today.

''There are channels, above all of a humanitarian character, through which we have contacts with the kidnappers,'' D'Alema told reporters in Lisbon.

''You cannot talk about true and outright negotiations ... but there are contacts to create the conditions to win the Italian reporter's release.'' The Taliban have demanded the withdrawal of Italy's roughly 1,900 troops from Afghanistan to clear the way for the release of La Repubblica newspaper journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, but Rome has not shown any readiness to comply.

The Taliban have also called for the release of three Taliban spokesmen and a senior Taliban commander is reported to have threatened to kill Mastrogiacomo if Rome does not meet its demands.

D'Alema refused to explain in further detail the nature of the government's contacts, adding only that all indications were that Mastrogiacomo was still alive.

''It is a very difficult matter and requires great discretion,'' D'Alema said.

In 2004 Italy's Red Cross said it treated four presumed Iraq ''terrorists'' and four of their children to secure the release of two Italian charity workers kidnapped in Iraq.

Mastrogiacomo was picked up in the lawless southern province of Helmand on March 5 along with two Afghan colleagues, and the Taliban said he had confessed to spying for British troops. The Taliban often executes Afghans it accuses of spying.

La Repubblica has repeatedly denied the reporter 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.

Italian journalist Gabriele Torsello was kidnapped in Helmand in October and held for three weeks before being released unharmed.

A crew working for al Jazeera television -- three Afghans and a Briton -- were held overnight last month while travelling from neighbouring Kandahar to Helmand.

Reuters PDM DB2254