The Italian government came under fire on Tuesday after it emerged that up to five Taliban prisoners were freed in exchange for the life of an Italian reporter who was held hostage for two weeks in Afghanistan.
The centre-right opposition demanded that the government report to parliament on the details of Daniele Mastrogiacomo's release.
The government said it would address the Senate on the case on Wednesday morning but opposition chief Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party said that was insufficient and that it should explain itself to the House as well.
The rightist National Alliance (AN), the second biggest opposition party, accused centre-left Premier Romano Prodi of "giving in to terrorists" and encouraging the Taliban to carry out more kidnappings.
It also argued that "freeing Taliban terrorists" went against the purpose of NATO's mission to secure Afghanistan and defeat a Taliban insurgency there.
Mastrogiacomo, a 52-year-old correspondent for Rome-based daily La Repubblica, was released on Monday after 15 days in the hands of Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan.
The spokesman of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Karim Rahimi, confirmed at a press conference in the Afghan capital on Tuesday that some Taliban prisoners had been released in exchange for Mastrogiacomo.
But he said the case was "exceptional" and would not be repeated in future.
"The Taliban presented their demands, some of which were satisfied. It was an exceptional measure taken in consideration of the value of our relations with Italy," Rahimi said.
He did not say exactly how many prisoners were released or provide any of their names but one of them was reported to be Mansoor Ahmad, the brother of top Taliban military commander Mullah Dadullah.
Emergency, an Italian aid organisation which played a key role in helping to negotiate Mastrogiacomo's release, said that no ransom was paid.
"The kidnappers didn't want money. They made it clear from the start that they weren't interested in cash or goods," said the organisation, which runs three hospitals and more than 30 other facilities in Afghanistan.
The Italian opposition accused Prodi of bowing to Taliban demands in order to keep his fractious coalition in line over Afghanistan policy.
Italy has 1,900 troops serving in Afghanistan on a peacekeeping mission but pacifists in the nine-party governing coalition are pushing for their withdrawal, arguing that the conflict-torn state has become too dangerous for peacekeepers.
Prodi has rejected the pullout demands but a handful of hard-left senators could exploit his razor-thin majority in the Senate to sink upcoming legislation approving the mission's refinancing.
If Prodi decides to push the measure through the Senate via a confidence vote, as he has done in the past, then any defections could prove fatal to his government.
The government was concerned that failure to secure Mastrogiacomo's abduction could have hardened opposition to Italy's continued presence in Afghanistan.
ITALY'S HOSTAGE RECORD RAISES DOUBTS.
It is not the first time that Italy has been criticised over its handling of hostage cases abroad.
When Berlusconi was in power, his government was accused of handing over huge sums of money to obtain the release of Italians kidnapped in Iraq, including a female reporter and two women aid workers.
The Italian Red Cross (CRI) triggered a storm in 2005 when it said it had treated four presumed Iraqi terrorists and four of their children to secure the release of the aid workers, who were kidnapped in Baghdad in 2004.
