South Koreans, Taliban in 2nd day of hostage talks

KABUL, Aug 11 (Reuters) South Korean diplomats and Taliban kidnappers today began a second day of direct talks on freeing 21 Korean hostages now entering their fourth week of captivity, a provincial governor said.

The South Korean government is under intense domestic pressure to secure the safe release of the hostages, but has no power to yield to the kidnappers' main demand -- for a list of Taliban rebels to be freed from government jails.

Face-to-face talks may provide a way out of the impasse.

''The negotiation is still going on, we haven't reached any results,'' said Merajuddin Pattan, the governor of the province of Ghazni where the Koreans were abducted on July 20.

Pattan is sitting in on the talks, held at a Red Crescent building in the city of Ghazni where the Afghan government has guaranteed the safety of the Taliban negotiators.

''I don't think it is going to finish today, it might be finalised tomorrow,'' he told Reuters as he was about to enter the talks, but declined to give any further details.

The South Korean government earlier confirmed its first face-face-talks with the Taliban yesterday night, but would release no details of the discussion.

The Taliban have already killed two Korean hostages and have threatened to kill the rest if their demands are not met.

But Afghan officials have ruled out any prisoner swap saying that would just encourage a kidnapping ''industry'' and have threatened to free the hostages by force if necessary.

The Taliban have split the hostages into small groups and said any use of force to free them would put their lives at risk.

REUTERS SLD VC1220