END OF ORDEAL: Four women and a man were released in a desert close to Shah Baz hours after the first group of three women was freed in the village of Qala-e-Kazi. Four more hostages were freed as dusk approached and the remaining seven are expected to be released over the next 48 hours. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

The 12 were released in three separate batches near here.

The first group of three women was freed in the village of Qala-e-Kazi. Several hours later, four women and one man were released in a desert close to Shah Baz.

As dusk approached, four more hostages were freed on a main road around 50km from Ghazni.

None of them said anything to reporters.

Wearing long, traditional headscarves, the first three women to be freed wept as they sat in an International Committee of the Red Cross vehicle.

VIDEO Taleban to release South Korean hostages (1:14)

The insurgents have said they will free all the hostages over the next 48 hours. They have not stated the reason for the staggered release, but it is believed that the captives are being held in different groups far from each other.

The insurgents seized 23 Korean Christian volunteers on July 19 from a bus in Ghazni province. Two male hostages were killed by their captors early on in the crisis.

The Taleban freed two women during the first round of talks earlier this month, but said on Tuesday they had reached a deal on releasing the remaining 19.

To secure the release of the church workers, South Korea reaffirmed a pledge it made, well before the hostage crisis began, to pull its troops out of Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Seoul also said it would prevent South Korean Christian missionaries from working in the country.

The Taleban apparently backed down on earlier demands for a prisoner exchange.

Amid speculation about behind-the-scenes deals, including possible monetary pay-offs, presidential spokesman Chon Ho Seon was asked if there were as yet undisclosed conditions.

His reply: 'There have been no discussions about other things.'

He added: 'We believe it is any country's responsibility to respond with flexibility to save lives, as long as you don't depart too far from the principles and practice of the international community.'

For the families of the hostages, what mattered was their loved ones were coming home.

'I am extremely happy. I want to see them and hug them now,' said Mr Seo Jeung Bae, 57, whose son and daughter were among those abducted by the Taleban.

But there were discordant notes too - from Korean bloggers, who criticised the hostages for their cavalier behaviour, and Afghan officials, who criticised Seoul for doing a deal with Islamic militants.

Said Afghanistan's Commerce Minister Amin Farhang: 'This release under these conditions will make our difficulties in Afghanistan even bigger.'

South Korean Protestant organisations hinted that missionary activities would go on even as they supported the deal.

'We respect the government's agreement with the Taleban and will devise more effective and safer ways to carry out missionary activities abroad,' said the Korea National Council of Churches in a statement.

REUTERS, ASSOCIATED PRESS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESS

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SOUTH KOREA CORRESPONDENT LEE TEE JONG IN SEOUL

leeteejong@yahoo.com