FACTBOX - Foreign hostages in Afghanistan

(Reuters) - A Taliban spokesman says patience is running out in talks over 23 South Korean hostages kidnapped by insurgents in Afghanistan and says rebel prisoners must be freed by 0930 GMT (10:30 a.m. British time) on Wednesday.

Following are details of reported kidnappings of foreigners in Afghanistan since 2006.

* March 2006: Taliban insurgents say they killed four hostages and dumped their bodies in the Kandahar-Helmand area in southern Afghanistan. The four were abducted on March 11. An official at the Ecolog services company in Kabul said the four hostages, all from Macedonia, were employees.

* April 2006: An Indian engineer, identified as K. Suryanarayan, is found beheaded on April 30 not far from where he was kidnapped near the main road between Qalat and Ghazni. The Taliban claim responsibility.

* October 2006: Gabriele Torsello, a London-based photojournalist who is a Muslim, is kidnapped on October 12 by gunmen after he left by bus from Lashkar-Gah, capital of Helmand province in the south. He is released unharmed on November 3.

* March 2007: The Taliban capture Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo of La Repubblica and two Afghans in Helmand province. He is handed over to the Italian embassy on March 19 but his Afghan driver is beheaded and his translator is executed on April 8.

* April 2007: The Taliban say they have kidnapped Eric Damfreville, a Frenchman, working for Terre d'Enfance aid organisation, along with their local driver and two other Afghans in Nimroz province. He is released on May 11. A French woman hostage who also worked for the Terre d'Enfance is released in late April by the Taliban after three weeks in captivity.

* July 2007: Two German engineers are kidnapped by the Taliban while travelling in Wardak province, southwest of the capital, Kabul. One German was killed, apparently by his captors.

-- July 23: The Taliban say the other German is still being held along with four Afghans.