SEOUL, Aug 7: The relatives of 21 South Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban said on Tuesday that summit talks between US President George W. Bush and Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai had not made enough effort to save their lives.

Gathered at a church on the outskirts of Seoul where the aid workers were based, they expressed their disappointment at Monday's talks when the leaders insisted there could be no deal with the Taliban extremists.

The families, some weeping, wore paper signs reading “Send them home” and “Set them free” while a spokesman read their statement on television.

“We could not sleep at night due to our expectations, as the release and safe return of our families depended on the two leaders' summit,” the statement said.

“But the summit, which failed to concretely touch on the families detained in Afghanistan, made insufficient effort to actively save precious lives.”According to the White House, Bush and Karzai agreed at their Camp David meeting outside Washington that they would not make any concessions to secure the release of the South Koreans.

The Taliban is demanding the release of captured fighters in return for the safe return of the hostages, part of a group of 23 kidnapped on July 19 while travelling in insurgency-plagued southern Afghanistan.

Two male captives have already been shot dead by the militants.

“The United States has been working to the extent possible with the Afghan and Korean governments in urging that the hostages be released,” US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

“There will be no quid pro quo, the Taliban cannot be emboldened by this,” he added.

However, South Korean embassy officials in Kabul have said they are hopeful of face-to-face talks with the Taliban, although a date and venue are to be fixed.

Negotiators were able to speak with one of the hostages on Saturday, they said, in the first known contact between the captives and their government.

Separately, Yonhap news agency in Seoul said the Taliban were now proposing that a number of female hostages be exchanged for jailed women supporters of the insurgents.

The reported proposal by spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, in a telephone interview with Yonhap, follows Taliban claims that two Korean women are gravely ill.

“We do not know the exact number of Taliban women imprisoned by the Afghan government, but if (Kabul) lets them go, we will release the same number of female hostages,” Ahmadi was quoted as saying.

South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon said the health problems were not serious.

“The hostages can't be perfectly healthy after nearly 20 days in captivity.

In that sense, they are not healthy on the whole. There has been no symptom of any of the hostages being critically ill.” “The government is making various efforts for the release of the hostages,” he added.

The Taliban had said Monday it was awaiting the outcome of Bush's meeting with Karzai to see whether its demand would be met.

Meanwhile the husband of one of the kidnapped women posted a tearful video on the Internet site YouTube to his wife, saying he hates himself for sleeping while she suffers in Afghanistan.

Rhyu Haeng-Shik, 36, appealed tearfully for her release in the first of a series of videos made by relatives to press for the freedom of their loved ones.

“You must be very sick and in hard conditions and I disgust and hate myself for eating and sleeping,” he said, according to the caption in English.

Some 50 members of South Korean civic and religious groups added their own call for international help to free the hostages.

They criticised the United States for its “war on terror” in Afghanistan, which they called “unjustifiable,” and said South Korea was also responsible for having sent support troops to the country.

The Taliban have also demanded that some of their men be freed in exchange for a 62-year-old German engineer captured near Kabul a day before the South Koreans. He is being held with four Afghans.—AFP