Italian appeals for a news reporter missing since the start of the week in Afghanistan surged Friday amid fresh but sketchy reports on his fate.
Leading the appeals for La Repubblica reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo were Italy's top Muslim clerics in Rome and Milan, who said Islam "was not about violent acts like holding people against their will".
A Florence-based organisation called Information Safety and Freedom said "Mastrogiacomo is a journalist and wanted to meet the Taliban to do his job, to give everyone a chance to speak".
"Journalists are witnesses who look for the facts and give all sides a platform. Those who silence journalists want a blind, dumb world. They fear the truth".
Roma soccer star Francesco Totti also urged the Taliban to free Mastrogiacomo.
"They say I'm popular even there, in those unfortunate war-torn areas, so I'm adding my voice," the Roma captain said.
"Mastrogiacomo is like me, a decent, honest hard-working Roman just trying to do his job".
"He's a good man and a good journalist".
Mastrogiacomo, 53, is known to be a Roma fan.
Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said both Roma and its cross-city rivals Lazio would don shirts Saturday calling for Mastrogiacomo's release.
Following Veltroni's lead, the Italian Soccer League said all Serie A and B players would do the same.
Meanwhile conflicting reports continued to come in about Mastrogiacomo, who went missing in southern Afghanistan Monday as he was travelling to meet Taliban leaders.
In one, Italian state television RAI said the Taliban want Italy to quit Afghanistan in exchange for Mastrogiacomo's release.
RAI interviewed a Pakistani journalist, Rahimullah Yousefzai, who claims to be in direct touch with the Islamists holding Mastrogiacomo.
As well as the withdrawal of Italy's 2,000 troops, the Taliban wants NATO to halt an offensive unleashed Monday and release two Taliban spokesmen from jail in Kabul, Yousefzai said.
However, the Italian ambassador in Kabul said Italy had received no such demands.
Speaking to ANSA on the phone, Ettore Sequi said, "We have yet to receive direct claims or demands" for the journalist.
Sequi said Mastrogiacomo appeared to be in the hands of Taliban-linked groups. 'CONTRADICTORY RUMOURS'.
"Contradictory rumours" made the situation "very unclear," Sequi said.
"But we have the feeling that the people who kidnapped Mastrogiacomo are at least close to Taliban groups".
"There is no official channel of communications open for negotiations to free Mastrogiacomo," he added.
Junior Foreign Minister Ugo Intini welcomed another reported Taliban statement that the Italian newsman would be freed if the Islamists decided he wasn't, as they first thought, a spy.
The Taliban reportedly said they were examining Mastrogiacomo's belongings to make sure he wasn't carrying "laser signals, hidden in shampoo bottles" that could be used to call down air strikes.
A Taliban spokesman, quoted on the website of Italy's biggest daily Corriere della Sera, said the kidnappers were making a video about Mastrogiacomo that would be released "later on".
However, he said the reporter would not appear in it.
Ambassador Sequi stressed the importance of gauging the reliability of these statements, pointing out that "there is still no proof (Mastrogiacomo) is alive".
"I hope the picture becomes clearer in the coming days," he said.
Italian military intelligence SISMI is working "energetically" to try to get more solid information but is hampered by an "extremely critical context", Italy's parliamentary oversight commission said, alluding to the NATO offensive - the biggest military action since the 2001 war that toppled the Taliban.
Premier Romano Prodi said the kidnapping had spurred "a general mobilisation" of resources which might help free the reporter.
