The two men were abducted near the border with Pakistan, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund said.

Both were released after "Norwegian authorities worked very hard and intensely" to secure their freedom, Imerslund said. She declined to name the men or their abductors.

Kjetil Johnsen, a producer for the Norwegian production company Novemberfilm, identified the journalist as Paal Refsdal, who was in Afghanistan filming a documentary for the company.

The Norwegian news agency NTB reported that Refsdal is a 46-year-old veteran war journalist who reported from Kosovo during the Balkan conflict and from Afghanistan during the Soviet Union's invasion in the 1980s.

Johnsen told The Associated Press Thursday that Refsdal was safe in Kabul and "in good spirits." He said Refsdal and his translator were uninjured.

"This is a very good day for us and for his family," said Johnsen, who spoke by phone from Kabul. He said he had traveled to the Afghan capital on Monday "to do what little I could to help."

The documentary Refsdal was filming _ "Den Andre Siden," or "The Other Side" _ proposed to "follow three Afghans from a perspective not yet shown in Western media," giving "a better and more nuanced picture of Afghan society, but on the Afghans' terms," according to the Web site of the Norwegian Film Institute, which awarded Novemberfilm a 700,000 kroner ($125,000) grant to produce the film.

Refsdal's release came a day after Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere arrived in Afghanistan to meet with top Afghan and military officials. Imerslund said the trip had been planned long in advance and had nothing to do with the kidnapping.

According to NTB, the captors had Refsdal himself call the embassy to say he had been kidnapped, a common tactic among kidnappers in the region.

The Pakistani newspaper The News reported Monday that Refsdal was being held in the eastern Kunar Province by the Taliban, and that his captors demanded the release of 12 Taliban prisoners and the withdrawal of Norwegian troops from the country.

Imerslund declined to comment on the report or comment on how the hostages were freed.

Kunar Province is considered one of the most dangerous areas in the country. Its mountainous terrain makes it a popular base of operations for Taliban insurgents.

A Foreign Ministry statement said a "crisis response team" was established in Oslo and in Kabul immediately after the Norwegian Embassy in Afghanistan informed the Foreign Ministry of the kidnapping on Friday.

The teams "have been working day and night to secure the release of the two men, and the embassy in Kabul has been given extra resources to deal with the situation," the statement said.