Freeing Italian hostage will take time

Securing the release of a kidnapped Italian aid worker in Afghanistan will take time, an Interior Ministry official said yesterday, more than a week after gunmen snatched her from a Kabul street.

Clementina Cantoni, 32, a worker for the Care International aid agency, was kidnapped by four armed men who stopped her vehicle on a Kabul street on May 16.

"We are hopeful that she will be released... it takes time," Lutfullah Mashal said.

He said authorities believed Ms Cantoni was still in Kabul and negotiators were still in contact with the kidnappers.

Mr Mashal said officials had spoken to Ms Cantoni on Saturday and she was fine, but he refused to say what demands the kidnappers were making for her release.

Ms Cantoni's abduction has raised fresh fears among Kabul's 2,000-strong foreign community of Iraq-style kidnappings by anti-government insurgents or criminals.

Officials say that they believe her kidnappers are criminals, not Islamic militants.

A man the government said for a time had abducted the woman has spoken to media several times, giving a baffling series of accounts, demands and threats. He said on Friday he had killed Ms Cantoni but later told others she was fine.

Mr Mashal declined to discuss the kidnappers' identity and referred to the group in contact with the negotiators as "alleged kidnappers".

Officials of the Italian embassy and Care International have declined to comment on efforts to secure Ms Cantoni's release.

Three foreign UN election workers were kidnapped in Kabul in October and held for 27 days before being released unharmed.

Their kidnappers were believed to have been criminals linked to a Taliban splinter faction and officials initially said Ms Cantoni's kidnappers were suspected to belong to the same gang.