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Canadian and Afghan leaders rejected reports that Taliban prisoners had been swapped for the release of Canadian journalist Mellissa Fung, with officials from Ottawa to Kandahar issuing a string of denials.

Authorities in both countries have been close-lipped about the circumstances that led to the release of Ms. Fung almost a month after she was abducted outside Kabul on Oct. 12.

But Afghan and Canadian leaders moved quickly on Monday to deny reports that Taliban or other prisoners had been traded for the release of the 35-year-old Canadian journalist.

“There have been continued reports about ransoms or money being paid. That was not done in this case. Likewise, there's been no release or exchange of political prisoners,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told reporters after meeting provincial premiers in Ottawa Monday.

“This matter is being handled according to the laws of the government of Canada and the government of Afghanistan. And that's all I'll say in that regard.”

In Afghanistan, Ahmed Wali Karzai, chairman of Kandahar's provincial council and brother of President Hamid Karzai, denied that any transactions – including prisoner exchanges or government payments to the insurgents for information – were made.

“There is absolutely nothing, no exchange, nothing,” he said. “It was the work of the NDS. They found the lady.”

The NDS, or National Security Directorate, is Afghanistan's intelligence agency. In a brief statement released yesterday, the agency also denied the claim that prisoners were exchanged.

It's still unclear precisely how Ms. Fung's four-week ordeal came to an end, however.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. journalist was seized by armed men after visiting a refugee camp just outside Kabul; she was blindfolded and held in a cramped cave.

Taliban sources have told The Globe and Mail that Ms. Fung was the focus of a squabble between various groups.

They said she was initially abducted by local criminals, but a Taliban group intercepted her and her captors a few days later; they then lost her in a squabble to a group loyal to an ethnic Hazara warlord who had previously been affiliated with a non-Taliban militia, the Hizb-i-Islami.

Published reports have quoted Adam Khan Serat, spokesperson for the provincial governor in Wardak province, as saying that local tribal elders and provincial council members negotiated her release. She was later transferred to intelligence officials near the town of Maidan Shahr, southwest of Kabul, he said.

Mr. Harper has repeatedly denied lingering reports that some kind of ransom or money was paid to obtain Ms. Fung's release. A Canadian official, who spoke yesterday on condition he not be identified, said that “large amounts” were requested, but that “these guys got zip.”

The official said there was no exchange of Taliban prisoners, but also noted that Afghan authorities had released some of the individuals they had arrested in sweeps conducted as part of their investigation of Ms. Fung's abduction.

It appears that those sweeps were quite broad. Among those arrested were Ms. Fung's fixer – the term for the savvy guides who steer reporters through the country's dangers – along with his brother, who had worked as her driver.

In Kabul, Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan said it's not surprising that there has been intense speculation about how Ms. Fung's freedom was obtained, but he insisted there was no exchange of prisoners.

“As you can appreciate when something like this breaks so suddenly — inevitably there is a lot of speculation and a lot of rumour and there have, of course, been a lot of kidnappings recently,” he said.

“There was no special deal of that nature and the government of Canada certainly wouldn't have called for, or supported, any such kind of deal at that level, just like we don't support the paying of a ransom.”

“I am more than reasonably confident that there was no exchange of Taliban prisoners.”

At a press briefing Monday, Nilab Mobarez, a spokesman for the United Nations Aid Mission in Afghanistan, said there has been an increase in kidnapping incidents recently in the southern part of Afghanistan.

“As you all know, we are seeing a higher than normal level of kidnappings in some areas, including affecting the aid community,” Dr. Mobarez said. “In most cases, the abductions appear to us to be purely criminal in nature and not related to the insurgency.”

“In no way does it affect our commitment to the people of Afghanistan,” he said.