Taliban extend deadline to kill Italian reporter

Afghanistan,(Reuters)

The Taliban have extended their deadline to execute a kidnapped Italian journalist by three days to Monday to give Rome more time to respond to their demands, a rebel spokesman said on Saturday.

News of the extension of the deadline, which had been set to expire on Friday, came a day after Italy appealed for time as the rebels said they had killed an Afghan driver abducted along with La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo.

"We are extending the deadline for three days from Friday," Mullah Hayatullah Khan told Reuters. "We will wait for the response in regard to our demands."

Khan, speaking by satellite phone from an undisclosed location, said there had been "contacts" for Mastrogiacomo's release but did not elaborate.

He said the rebels had killed driver Sayed Agha on Thursday after a Taliban court found him guilty of spying, and would now decide the fate of Mastrogiacomo and his Afghan interpreter.

Mastrogiacomo was seized with his two Afghan colleagues in the lawless southern province of Helmand last week and the Taliban said he had confessed to spying for British troops.

La Repubblica denied that the reporter was a spy and said the Karachi-born man had been writing for them since 1980 and reporting from Afghanistan since Feb. 28.

Mastrogiacomo appeared in a video released on Wednesday, appealing to the Italian government to work for his freedom.