GHAZNI, Afghanistan - The United States is not ruling out military force to free South Korean hostages held by the Taliban in Afghanistan, a senior State Department official said Thursday.
"All pressures need to be applied to the Taliban to get them to release these hostages," said Richard Boucher, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia. "The goal is to get these people released unharmed, to get them released peacefully and safely."
Boucher spoke ahead of a weekend visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who will meet with President Bush at Camp David, Md. In the hostage case, Boucher noted cooperation between the governments of the United States, Afghanistan and South Korea.
He declined to elaborate on what pressures or efforts were being used or considered but said they included the option of military force.
"There are things that we say, things that others say, things that are done and said within Afghan society as well as potential military pressures," Boucher said.
South Korea has appealed to the U.S. for help following the murder of two of the initial 23 hostages taken near Ghazni, Afghanistan, on July 19.
Boucher's remarks appeared at odds with those of a South Korean official who said that Seoul's foreign minister, Song Min-Soon, and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte had agreed during a meeting Thursday in the Philippines to rule out a military attempt to end the standoff.
Several deadlines set by the Taliban for the Afghan government to free militant prisoners in exchange for the hostages' release have passed.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan, South Korean and Afghan officials trying to find an acceptable meeting place after agreeing to hold face-to-face talks with the Taliban to seek the release of the captives, according to a chief negotiator. Two of the hostages are said by the Taliban to be seriously ill and could die.
The Taliban captors have agreed to meet with South Korea's ambassador to Afghanistan but have not found a suitable place, said Waheedullah Mujadidi, head of a delegation negotiating with the Taliban.
Earlier South Korean diplomatic efforts had failed to bend Afghanistan's refusal to respond to Taliban demands.
Afghanistan came under criticism from the U.S. and other Western governments this year for releasing prisoners to win the release of an Italian hostage.
Boucher said U.S. opposition to concessions to terrorists and kidnappers remained unchanged.
Despite the hostage situation, indicative of the continued Taliban threat in Afghanistan since they were toppled after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the ongoing high production of opium poppies, Boucher said the country was progressing on many fronts.
"Afghanistan is in a much better position now than it was before as a nation. Enormous strides have been made," he said, pointing to declining infant mortality rates, the opening of thousands of schools and construction of new roads and power grids.
The United States is pumping $10.1 billion into emergency Afghan reconstruction, development, governance and security projects this year. That figure is expected to drop by more than half, to $4.7 billion, in fiscal 2008.
Boucher said the reduction reflects the removal of about $6 billion included in this year's terrorism-war supplemental budget and does not indicate a lessening of the U.S. commitment to Karzai's government, which has been dogged by allegations of corruption and ineffectiveness in dealing with insurgents.
Issues of good governance, rule of law and poppy eradication are among those Bush is expected to raise with Karzai when they meet, he said.
