The Taliban have not killed the remaining 22 South Korean Christian volunteers held hostage in Afghanistan despite a deadline passing, a Taliban spokesman said yesterday.

They are safe and alive, ?Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by telephone from an unknown location. The Afghan government, he said, «has given us hope for a peaceful settlement of the issue.?

The Taliban had given the Afghan government till 2030 GMT on Wednesday to agree to exchange the group for imprisoned rebels, but the deadline passed without word from the kidnappers until Yousuf spoke yesterday morning.

Earlier, General Ali Shah Ahmadzai, provincial police chief of Ghazni province where the 22 remaining hostages are being held and where one was killed on Wednesday, told Reuters the government was keen to resume negotiations with the kidnappers.

He confirmed they also believed the hostages were safe.

?I was awake all night and if the Taliban had killed any of them I would have known,? he said. ?We are trying to contact the Taliban for resumption of talks.?

The fate of the 22 Christian volunteers had hung in the balance overnight, after the rebels killed one hostage .