Militants threatening to kill three United Nations hostages, including a Northern Irish woman, said today a noon deadline could be postponed for talks on their demands.
Afghan officials expressed optimism that the abduction could end with the foreigners' release.
It was unclear if the kidnappers had been contacted or the victims located. Police units began a fresh search west of Kabul last night.
Ms Annetta Flanigan, from Co Armagh; Filipino Mr Angelito Nayan; and Ms Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo were snatched from a busy street in the capital last Thursday.
The Taliban splinter group, Jaish-al Muslimeen, or Army of Muslims, released a video on Sunday showing the frightened captives pleading for their freedom.
However, several Afghan officials say they suspect warlords or criminal groups were also involved in the daylight snatch.
Officials for the group, which is demanding the UN withdraw its peacekeeping force from Afghanistan, say talks are under way via intermediaries, that they are flexible in their demands and that a "few days more" could be allowed before they execute the hostages.
A UN spokesman refused to discuss any negotiations, saying it could endanger efforts to free the hostages. The Philippine government, which has sent diplomats to Kabul to seek their freedom, also imposed a news blackout.
All three hostages were in Afghanistan to help manage its October 9th presidential election. US-backed interim leader Mr Hamid Karzai was this morning named the official winner of last month's historic presidential election by the body organising the vote.
The Labour Party president and spokesman on Foreign Affairs, Mr Michael D Higgins, said he trusted the Irish Government, the members of the European Union, and the international community, will use "all of their influence" in efforts to secure the release of Annetta Flanigan and her colleagues
He said kidnapping as a "tragic development that serves no purpose whatsoever and one that, in terms of its damage to the work of the United Nations, should be of concern to all members of that body. No
cause or political project is advanced by these kidnappings of those who were giving their service to the United Nations".