KABUL, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants on Tuesday expressed readiness to swap all the Korean female hostages with their women supporters held by Afghan and U.S. military, insurgents' spokesman Qari Yusuf said.

    "We offer to exchange all the Korean females with those Taliban women supporters who have been languishing at Afghan government prisons and U.S. military detention centers in Kandahar and Bagram," Ahmadi told Xinhua from an unknown location.

    However, he did not say the exact figure of women who have been held by authorities in Afghanistan for supporting Taliban .

    Taliban fighters kidnapped 23 Korean aid workers on Kabul-Kandahar highway late last month in the central Ghazni province and so far have executed two male of them.

    Still 18 Korean women and three men have been languishing in Taliban captivity since their abduction nearly three weeks ago.

    Taliban have in the beginning conditioned the release of the hostages to the release of eight Taliban prisoners from Afghan government jails and the withdrawal of 200-strong South Korean supporting the U.S.-led Coalition forces in Afghanistan.

    Taliban insurgents have also warned to kill the hostages if their demands are overlooked.

    However, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his U.S. counterpart President Bush have ruled out any concessions to militants for the release of hostages.