Kabul - More than 500 Afghan police and villagers in eastern Afghanistan resumed the search on Wednesday morning for a kidnapped Japanese aid worker, who was abducted by four armed men the previous day, police said.

Kazuya Ito, 31, an employee of Peshawar-Kai, a Japanese aid group, along with his Afghan driver was kidnapped in Khewa district of eastern Nangahar province on Tuesday morning as he was on his way to inspect an ongoing irrigation project in the area.

The driver was released hours later and confirmed Ito was alive. Hundreds of police and villagers started to search for him in the mountains between Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province, but ended their search at nightfall.

"Today at 4 am, more than 250 police forces and 150 villagers have resumed their search in the mountains and we hope we can find him," Ghafour Khan, provincial police chief told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Khan said that more than 100 police forces were also dispatched from Kunar to the mountains to conduct the same search.

The Interior Ministry said on Tuesday that police had freed the hostage after a clash with militants that left one of the kidnappers wounded.

But later sources from Peshawar-Kai organization dismissed the report and said that the police on the ground arrested one of the kidnappers and the ministry misunderstood and thought that the hostage was released.

Taliban militants also on Tuesday reportedly claimed responsibility for the abduction and said that the Japanese hostage had been killed during a clash between Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces.

But the reports were falsified by Ito's driver after his release,

No ransom request has been received for Ito, who comes from central Japan.

Taliban militants carried out kidnappings in the past, while abduction for ransom by criminal gangs have also become common in Afghanistan.

Ito had been conducting volunteer work as an agricultural specialist for Peshawar-kai since December 2003. The NGO has been assisting in digging wells and building irrigation systems. (dpa)