Taliban extend deadline for kidnapped aid worker

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's Taliban extended again on Monday their deadline for a deal to release a kidnapped French aid worker, saying French president-elect Nicolas Sarkozy had pressing domestic issues to deal with.

The extension came hours after a rogue Afghan soldier -- the Taliban said he was a militant infiltrator -- shot dead two U.S. soldiers at a high-security prison on the outskirts of Kabul.

The Taliban had previously put off the deadline until after Sunday's French election run-off for Eric Damfreville and three Afghan colleagues from Terre d'Enfance, an agency helping children in southern Afghanistan.

"Since it is a new government, that has to pick its cabinet and deal with ... the problems it has (at home), we give them more time," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said from an undisclosed location. "We expect them to get in touch with us."

Last year was the most violent in Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

The war has since intensified after a traditional winter lull, with both the Taliban and the U.S.-backed Afghan government seeking a decisive advantage in the battle for the country.

The militants holding the aid workers have demanded the withdrawal of France's 1,100 or so troops from Afghanistan and the release of more Taliban from Afghan jails, but have also said that meeting one of the demands would win the hostages' freedom.

An Italian journalist was released in March in return for Taliban prisoners, in a deal diplomats criticised as likely to prompt more hostage-taking, and the Taliban have released one of the Terre d'Enfance aid workers, French woman Celine Cordelier.