(Adds Italian government comment) KANDAHAR, March 18 (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Sunday they had released an Italian journalist held for spying, along with his Afghan translator, but Rome said it still had no reason to believe the reporter had been freed. Karachi-born La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo was released after Afghan authorities freed two Taliban officials, rebel spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters by satellite phone from a secret location. "We handed over the two to a third party after we got two of the three people we wanted to be freed," Yousuf said. A provincial official said two Taliban were released late Saturday night. They were spokesman Latif Hakimi and a leader known as Ustad Yasar, Yousuf said. The pair were arrested in Pakistan in 2005 and later handed to Kabul. However, an Italian government spokesman in Rome, as well as its mission in Kabul, said they had no confirmation. "We have seen reports that he has been handed over to a third party of tribal chiefs. That is not a liberation," the government spokesman told Reuters in Rome. Media reports said Mastrogiacomo's driver was executed on Thursday, prompting Italy to say it was redoubling efforts to secure the reporter's release. The Taliban had threatened to execute the journalist unless its demands were met. On Saturday, they extended their deadline to give Rome more time to respond. Mastrogiacomo and his two colleagues were seized in the lawless southern province of Helmand this month, where NATO and Afghan forces this month launched a major offensive, and the Taliban said he had confessed to spying for British troops. La Repubblica denied he was a spy and said he had been working for it since 1980. (Additional reporting by Gavin Jones in Rome)
