Pakistan's ambassador held by Taliban - TV

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, who went missing in February in the Khyber region, appeared on Arabic television yesterday saying he was being held by the Taliban and urging Islamabad to meet their demands.

Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin appeared in a video tape on Al Arabiya television surrounded by armed militants to make his first public statement since he disappeared.

"We were kidnapped by mujahideen from the Taliban," the ambassador, wearing an open-necked shirt and looking calm, said in remarks translated from Urdu into Arabic.

"I suffer health problems such as high blood pressure and heart pains," said the bespectacled and grey-bearded ambassador, who gestured to his armed captors in an arid, hilly region.

Scores of people have been kidnapped in the dangerous border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the ambassador's disappearance highlighted instability in nuclear-armed Pakistan - a major ally in the US-led crackdown on militants.

The Pakistani government had not publicly confirmed he had been kidnapped but a senior government official said yesterday Azizuddin was being held by militants who were demanding the release of their arrested colleagues.

In a message to Pakistan's foreign ministry undersecretary, its envoys to China and Iran, and his brother, Azizuddin said:

"Because of my health condition I ... appeal to them to do all they can to preserve our lives and meet the demands of the Taliban mujahideen as soon as possible." The ambassador was on his way to Kabul from the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on February 11 when he disappeared along with his driver and bodyguard in the Khyber tribal region.

Azizuddin said he, his driver and bodyguard had been held for 27 days at the time the tape was filmed.

According to a senior Arabiya journalist, the ambassador spoke about "the release of any Muslim held in Pakistan whose release is demanded by Taliban".