Kidnappers agree to talks

Tim Selby, talks will now begin for his release

Kidnappers holding two Danes and a Briton in Bangladesh have agreed to talks on the release of the hostages, according to the authorities.

The three men were seized by unidentified gunmen last Friday in the remote Chittagong Hill Tracts region.

Security forces sealed off the forested area deep in the jungle where they believe the hostages are being held.

"They have agreed to talk... any place, any time," a member of the Bangladesh parliament, Dipankar Talukder, was quoted as saying.

Reports say the kidnappers agreed to talks in a message delivered on Tuesday through a tribal chief from their hideout in Rangamati district.

The authorities gave no details on the location and timing of the talks.

Emmisaries

BBC South Asia correspondent Mike Wooldridge says the signs are that the negotiations will begin through emissaries on both sides.

A government envoy has also been sent to the remote forests

The tribal headmen, who are the Bangladesh government's emissaries, have now gone back into the jungle again, taking with them more provisions for the hostages and faxed messages from their families.

Each round trip of this kind takes anything up to eight hours by motorbike. The area is rugged, communication extremely difficult.

The security forces' search for the kidnappers appears to remain suspended while efforts to negotiate the hostages safe release are pursued.

Good health

The gunmen have said their captives are in good health, and had previously demanded that soldiers and police withdraw from the area before any negotiations.

Briton Tim Selby, 28, an engineer from Manchester, had been in the country for a fortnight working on an engineering project funded by the Danish Government. He had been due to return to the UK on Sunday.

Another British man, David Weston, and the group's Bangladeshi driver were also abducted but later released unharmed in order to pass on a ransom demand for $1.7m (£1.2m).

The Danes, believed to be Torben Mikkelsen and Nils Hulgaard, worked for Kampsax, a Copenhagen-based company.

A member of the British High Commission and the Danish ambassador travelled to the region on Sunday to negotiate for the hostages' release.

Tribal insurgency

Local officials suspect a small group of former Shanti Bahini rebels, who opposed a 1997 peace deal with the government, may be responsible for the abductions.

A peace accord ended 25 years of tribal insurgency in the 14,200 sq km (5,500 sq mile) hill tracts bordering India and Burma.

The rebels have been accused of kidnapping members of rival groups, but the abduction of three foreign nationals, who were laying roads in the hill region, has surprised the authorities.