Taliban prisoners exchanged for Italian

ROME, March 22 (UPI) -- The Italian government said it has exchanged five Taliban prisoners for an Italian journalist kidnapped in southern Afghanistan.

Afghan officials confirmed the exchange, which took place 15 days after Daniele Mastrogiacomo, a reporter for leftist newspaper La Repubblica, was kidnapped by the Taliban, The New York Times reported Thursday.

The prisoner exchange, thought to be the first of its type in the wars being fought by the United States and its allies in Afghanistan and Iraq, drew criticism from other allied countries.

"We don't negotiate with terrorists and we don't advise others to do so either," said Sean McCormack, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department.

"When we create a situation where you can buy the freedom of Taliban fighters when you catch a journalist, then in the short term there will be no journalists anymore," said Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch foreign minister.

A senior Bush administration official said the Taliban prisoners were being held by the Afghan government and it is believed that NATO forces had no knowledge of the exchange before it was completed.