Taliban militants freed two female South Korean hostages in central Afghanistan on Monday afternoon, the first significant development in an enduring hostage crisis, officials said.

After a long ordeal in Taliban custody, the two hostages were released and met South Korean officials in Ghazni city, the capital of Ghazni Province, Shirin Mangal, provincial government spokesman, told the media.

Meanwhile, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Hee-yong confirmed that Kim Gina, 32, and Kim Kyung-ja, 37, have been moved to a safe area. Media reports said the two women would be flown back to South Korean soon after receiving medical checks.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun vowed that his government would spare no efforts in releasing the other hostages.

Video showed the hostages, wearing scarves, walking without assistance into a white vehicle of the International Committee for the Red Cross after their release by the militants.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousuf Ahmadi, previously said the two hostages had been freed on Saturday night, but this turned out to be false information. On Sunday night, Ghazni provincial governor Merajuddin Pattan said the hostages would be released on Monday morning, but it did not actually occur until the afternoon.

The Taliban said the two females were freed because the Taliban leadership wanted to show a "good gesture" toward South Korean authorities.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Ahmadi insisted the remaining 19 hostages would not be released if the demands for the liberty of some Taliban prisoners were not met.

Several South Korean diplomats and two Taliban delegates, Mullah Bashir and Mullah Nasratullah, have been discussing the hostages in Ghazni city since Friday night, with talks planned to continue.

A total of 23 South Koreans were kidnapped by Taliban militants on a road in Ghazni province on July 19. Taliban rebels shot dead two male hostages, one on July 25 and the other on July 30, to press Afghan and South Korean authorities to meet their demands. The Afghan government has refused to release Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

Taliban militants have carried out kidnappings in Afghanistan frequently over the past two years, and some hostages were killed.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2007)