GHAZNI, Aug 29: Taliban freed 12 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan on Wednesday, a day after reaching a deal with Korean and Indonesian negotiators on the release of the 19 Christian volunteers.

Three women were released first, followed by four women and a man -- handed over to members of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Ghazni, witnesses said.

A third batch comprising three women and a man was released later on Wednesday, they said.

Wearing long headscarves, the three women who were first to be freed wept as they sat in an ICRC vehicle.

A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousuf, said by telephone that he expected all of the hostages to be free by Thursday.

The militants seized 23 Korean volunteers on July 19 from a bus in Ghazni and initially demanded the release of Taliban members held prisoner by the Afghan government.

Two male hostages were killed by their captors. Taliban released two women as a gesture of goodwill during an initial round of talks.

A Taliban representative said they had dropped the demand for prisoners’ release after they realised that South Korea could not force the Afghan government to free anyone.

South Korea’s presidential Blue House said the final agreement was on the condition that the country would withdraw its troops from Afghanistan within the year and stop its nationals from doing missionary work there.

However, South Korea had already decided before the crisis to withdraw its contingent of about 200 engineers and medical staff from Afghanistan by the end of 2007. Since the hostages were taken it has banned its nationals from travelling there.

A spokesman for South Korea’s president did not respond to questions at a news briefing in Seoul on whether a ransom was part of the deal but said the government had done what was needed.

“We believe it is any country’s responsibility to respond with flexibility to save lives as long as you don’t depart too far from the principles and practice of the international community,” the spokesman said.

Two Indonesians were also involved in the negotiations, Indonesia said.

Relatives waiting in South Korea cheered when news of the releases came through. “We want to see all of them released,” Lee Jeong-hun, a representative of the families, told reporters.—Reuters