Italian aid worker Clementina Cantoni has been freed after 24 days as a hostage in Afghanistan, Italian official sources said in Rome on Thursday.

Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini confirmed the news and expressed "enormous relief", but provided no details, Italian News Agency ANSA said.

Cantoni, 32, was hauled from her car by a gang of armed men on May 16 after being forced to pull over. She was then dragged into the kidnappers' white Toyota before being driven off.

She is believed to have been in the hands of a gang headed by Timor Shah, a former Kabul district police chief.

Timor Shah reportedly promised to release the Italian aid worker if his mother, arrested in connection with another kidnapping, was first released.

Cantoni, who comes from Milan, was the first Italian to be taken hostage in Afghanistan.

She has been in Afghanistan for three years working for the Canadian section of the Care International aid agency. Her most recent project involved helping Afghan widows and their children.
 
During her time in captivity, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi called for her release.

Ciampi said he felt "great joy and deep relief" after hearing that Cantoni was free. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi also expressed his satisfaction.

"We're happy," smiling relatives of Cantoni said as they entered the family home in Milan after hearing the news.

They said they knew no details of the release.

On May 29, Afghan television stations aired a videotape of Cantoni after some media outlets reported she had been killed.

Cantoni is the sixth foreigner to be kidnapped in the last 12 months. Three UN workers were kidnapped ahead of the Afghan presidential polls last year but were set free unharmed after month.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2005)