Taliban expected to free deminers, official says

KABUL, June 25 (Reuters) Afghanistan's Taliban were expected to free 18 mine-clearing experts they seized at the weekend, an official for the group said today.

The 18 Afghans were taken on Saturday along with four specialist mine-sniffing dogs in the Andar district of Ghazni province, part of the eastern and southern areas where the Taliban are at their strongest.

The Taliban threatened at the time to kill them if investigations showed they were working for U.S.-led or Afghan forces in the country.

''Through our contacts and mediation in this issue, we have been assured that all will be released soon,'' Shohab Hakimi, head of the non-governmental Mine Detection Dog Centre (MDC), told Reuters.

Nine MDC staff and 9 others from the Mine Clearance Planning Agency made up the seized group.

Afghanistan remains one of the mostly heavily mined countries in the world, a legacy of decades of conflict as well as the 10-year Soviet occupation.

A number of non-governmental bodies have mine-clearing operations in the country, and their activities have been well supported at home and in the West following the international campaign spearheaded by Britain's late Princess Diana.

Taliban fighters have executed a number of Afghans and several foreigners they have accused of spying or working for the US-led foreign forces since their overthrow in 2001.

The rebels scattered after they were driven from power but have now re-grouped in the south and east - the poppy-producing regions responsible for over 90 percent of the world's heroin - and are engaged in daily clashes with US-led and Afghan troops as summer heralds an increase in fighting.

Reuters GP DB1212