An Italian television channel today aired footage of the beheading of a driver of an Italian journalist who was held for about two weeks by Afghanistan's Taliban militants until Kabul negotiated his release.

The RAI-1 channel beamed images of Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, his driver Sayed Agha and his interpreter Ajmal Naqshbandi, kneeling blindfolded before gun-wielding militants.

It then showed Agha being beheaded after which a shaken Mastrogiacomo made an impassioned appeal to Italian authorities to "do something," while underlining that the situation was "very difficult".