ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Taliban militants freed a kidnapped Pakistani envoy on Saturday, in what appeared to be part of a prisoner swap involving the release of more than 40 Taliban, according to senior Pakistani security official.

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan, Tariq Azizuddin, was abducted on February11 as he was traveling from the northwestern city of Peshawar to the Afghan border on his way back to Kabul.

He was released in the Pakistani tribal area of South Waziristan, where he had been held by fighters loyal to Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the official said.

The government has yet to give an official account of the circumstances surrounding the envoy's release.

"I can confirm he is released, and he is safe and sound," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Sadiq said.

The security official said he believed the ambassador's driver and guard had also been set free.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the envoy was originally abducted by one of several kidnap gangs operating in and around the Khyber Pass, linking landlocked Afghanistan with Pakistan's northwest.

But the 56-year-old Azizuddin was subsequently passed on to the Pakistani Taliban, who moved him to South Waziristan, at the southeast end of the tribal belt.

During the past few days more than 40 Taliban fighters held captive by the authorities had been released, according to the security officer.

In return the Taliban had released several members of the security forces, and it was unclear whether the ambassador, who represented one of Mehsud's main bargaining chips, was exchanged for a specific militant.

HOME SOON

The ambassador's family had been told by the government to expect him home by Saturday evening.

"We are thanking Allah that he is being re-united with us again," said his brother Imran Azizuddin.

Pakistan's new government, sworn in at the end of March, has begun a policy of engagement, negotiating through tribal leaders to persuade Mehsud to halt militant operations from the region.

NATO has expressed concern that attacks on its own forces in Afghanistan had increased since Pakistan began negotiating.

Mehsud gained infamy after the Pakistan government and America's CIA made him prime suspect in the assassination last December of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Mehsud has denied any role in her killing, and the new government, led by Bhutto's party, wants a U.N. investigation, saying it does not trust the previous government's findings.

Last month, Azizuddin appeared in a video on an Arabic television saying he was being held by the Taliban and urged the Pakistani government to meet their demands.

The long tribal belt on the border is notorious for being a haven for smugglers and bandits and became a sanctuary for al Qaeda and the Taliban militants who fled from Afghanistan after a U.S.-led invasion in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001.

The security situation in Pakistan has deteriorated markedly since mid-2007, mainly in the northwest, with militants linked to the Taliban and al Qaeda carrying out suicide bombings.

More than 600 people have been killed in militant related violence since the beginning of this year, but since the peace talks began the violence has tapered off.

(Additional reporting by Sheree Sardar and Kamran Haider; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

(For a Reuters blog about Pakistan see http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan)

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