A Taleban deadline to kill more of the 21 South Korean hostages it is holding in Afghanistan passed tensely but without incident today, although a spokesman for the group said that two of the hostages were now seriously ill.

The Afghan Government said that the hostages remained alive after the deadline, the latest of several, passed at noon local time (07:30 GMT) without any progress in negotiations. Earlier, an MP involved in the effort to release the missionaries said that local elders had asked the captors for a 48-hour extension.

The Taleban are demanding the release of eight militants held by the Government in return for the hostages. Although other deadlines in the two-week crisis have passed without violence, two hostages have been killed, including one on Monday, after other ultimatums went unanswered.

Adding to the anxiety today, the bodies of four Afghan court officials kidnapped at the same time as the Koreans were discovered in Ghazni province, where the aid workers are being held.

There was also confusion about an upcoming military operation in the Qarabagh district of the province. Leaflets were dropped advising civilians to leave their homes, raising expectations that the raid could be an attempt to free the hostages by force, but the Afghan Ministry of Defence later said the operation was some weeks away and not connected to the hostage crisis.

Although the Government said that the 21 remaining hostages were alive, a Taleban spokesman said that "one or more hostages could be killed any time" now that the deadline had passed.

Qari Yousef Ahmadi added that the poor health was another threat to their lives. "The majority of the hostages are ill, but two females are seriously ill and there is this possibility that they may die," he said. Mr Ahmadi said the court officials had been killed "because they worked for the Government".

The seizing of the South Koreans on the Kabul-Kandahar highway on July 19 was the largest kidnapping of foreigners in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in November 2001.

It has prompted an agonising vigil from the families of the hostages in Seoul, who, along with South Korean MPs and charities, have asked the US to intervene in the crisis and for the Afghan Government to bend its rules and to be "flexible" in negotiating with the Taleban.

Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, has said that he has little room to maneouvre but has led a chorus of complaints that the harming of women -- they are 16 among the hostages -- is unislamic. Spokesmen for the president have said that accomodating the demands of the Taleban could encourage a kidnapping "industry" in Afghanistan.

In a separate crisis, there were fresh fears for a German engineer held since July 18, a day before the South Koreans were captured, after Al-Jazeera broadcast a video purporting to show him begging for his life last night. The footage was the first to show the engineer. The Taleban has said he has been ill and drifting in and out of consciousness.

The video showed a man it said was the German hostage standing in a rocky clearing with several men pointing guns at him. There was no sound in the clip but the broadcaster said the captive called on Germany and the United States to pull their troops out of Afghanistan so that his life could be spared.

He was captured with a German colleague, who has since died in unclear circumstances, and five Afghans, one of whom escaped. Germany has around 3,000 troops stationed in northern Afghanistan. The fate of the engineer has hung over debate in Germany over whether to send more soldiers.

The hostage crises overshadowed a two-day visit to Afghanistan by David Cameron, who was inspecting Britain's role in the Nato mission to fight the Taleban and rebuild the country.

The Tory leader said that a “hard-headed assessment” of progress in the country was needed and called for greater unity of purpose among the Nato countries taking part in the counter-terrorism and reconstruction effort. “Britain is definitely bearing its share of the burden. We need more helicopters, we need more support and we need other Nato countries to play their part,” he said.

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