The Taliban claimed responsibility Friday for the kidnapping of 18 South Korean Christians and two German nationals, and said that they would only free the Germans if Berlin withdraws troops from Afghanistan.

The Koreans, on an evangelical and aid mission in the staunchly Islamic country, were abducted Thursday, a day after the Germans were kidnapped on the highway linking Kabul with Kandahar in the insurgency-hit south.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said by phone that all the hostages were "safe and sound" and that an Islamic council would determine their fate.

Ahmadi warned that the German prisoners would only be freed if Berlin pulled its 3,000 troops out of Afghanistan, where they are stationed in the north as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

 Germany Friday said that it was unclear whether two Germans kidnapped with five Afghan colleagues Wednesday were indeed in Taliban hands.

"There are contradictory statements," foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said. ?"We will watch further developments calmly and carefully," he added. "Our crisis team is working intensively to secure the rapid release of both German men."

In Afghanistan, the Taliban spokesman meanwhile confirmed the South Koreans' abduction from the bus that they were traveling in in southern Afghanistan.

"The Taliban have kidnapped the South Korean nationals," Ahmadi said from an unknown location. "There are 18 South Koreans - three men and 15 women. "They are with the Taliban now and they are safe and sound. They are under investigation and once the investigation is over, the Taliban leading council will make a final decision about their fate."

The South Koreans belong to a church group engaged in "evangelistic" and aid activity in one of Afghanistan's most insurgency-hit regions.

Ghazni province Governor Mirajuddin Pattan expressed anger at the presence in his part of the country of such a large number of foreign nationals, who are often prime targets for Taliban militants and also criminals.

"They must have thought they are in Korea, not in war-torn Afghanistan," he said. "They did not contact us, police, or the security forces for protection while traveling in this region."

South Korea urged Christian groups and other Koreans to get out of Afghanistan, and set up crisis task forces in Seoul and at its Kabul embassy.

"We have no legal means to ban travel to the country," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said. "However, we are strongly urging our people not to go. The government is also advising Koreans in Afghanistan to return home."

Afghan police said that they were not warned that the Koreans were in the area.

"They did not inform police about their presence in the area," provincial police chief Ali Shah Ahmadzai said. "We have found their empty bus and police have launched a major search operation in the area."

Around 1,200 Christians, including hundreds of children from South Korea - which has the second largest number of Christians in East Asia after the Philippines - arrived in devoutly Islamic Afghanistan last summer.

The Kabul government ordered them out amid fears for their safety.

A foreign ministry official said that there are 340 Koreans - 200 soldiers on a peacekeeping mission and 140 civilians - known to be in Afghanistan, but said that it had no immediate figures on short-term visitors such as the hostages.

Officials at the Saem-Mul Protestant Community Church in Bundang on the outskirts of Seoul were waiting anxiously for news of the church members.

"We are in an emergency conference," said Oh Soo-In, a senior church administrator. "We are quite concerned about their safety and whereabouts."

She said that the group, in their 20 and 30s, had left Seoul July 13 for an evangelical mission to Afghanistan and were due to return home next Monday.

"They are young Korean Christians who were engaged in short-term evangelistic activity and service for children in Kandahar," said Joseph Park, mission director of the Christian Council of Korea.

"NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] are serving in many dangerous places. We cannot turn away from poor people and children there just because of safety risks."

Reportted by Waheedullah Massoud of AFP, July 20, 2007