THE distraught parents of captured journalist Yvonne Ridley last night described their mounting fears for her safety after the revelation that she is to be put on trial by the Taliban.

Allan and Joyce Ridley were anxiously waiting for more news after being reassured by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that the Government would use every channel available to work towards securing her safety.

Ms Ridley, a reporter with the Sunday Express who formerly worked for The Northern Echo, was arrested a week ago when she was discovered inside Afghanistan reportedly wearing local dress and without papers.

What punishment Ms Ridley faces if convicted by a Taliban court was not known last night.

Speaking from the family home in West Pelton, near Stanley in County Durham, Mrs Ridley, 74, said she was unhappy with an apparent lack of action by the Government, despite Mr Straw's assurances.

"It is absolute torment and we have the double agony because we have our granddaughter little Daisy to deal with," she said.

"She asked me twice today if mummy was ever coming back and I did not know what to say to her. We just hope, beyond hope, that she will.

"They don't need any more proof she is a journalist, and it is absurd that she is being put on trial."

Mrs Ridley appealed to the Taliban to give her daughter an interview - with Osama bin Laden, if necessary - and then release her to carry its message to the outside world.

Meanwhile, Mr Straw pledged the Government's help as the Foreign Office urgently checked reports that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban plan to put the 43-year-old on trial for illegally entering the country.

Afghanistan's deputy foreign minister, Mullah Abdur Rahman Zahid, was quoted as saying: "She will be tried because she broke the laws of our land and entered our country without permission.

"Right now, the investigation of the British journalist is under way and then her case will be sent to the courts for a trial."

He said it was irrelevant whether she was a journalist.

Following a long conversation with Ms Ridley's mother, Mr Straw said: "I am afraid I wasn't able to give her any good news.

"But I was able to express my very great concern about her daughter's plight and express mine and the Government's deepest sympathy about the situation, and to say that we would do all we can and use every channel available to us to work towards securing her safety."

He acknowledged it was "a very difficult situation'", adding that Ms Ridley had been charged with what anyone else in the world would describe as an immigration offence.

He said the usual response for an immigration offence would be to deport an individual, but he added that whether the Taliban would see it that way was "quite another matter".

The British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Hilary Synnott, has already discussed the case with a Taliban representative in the Pakistan capital Islamabad.

Mr Synnott held a meeting yesterday with a team from Northern & Shell, publisher of Express Newspapers.

A Foreign Office spokes-man said: "'They have asked for our help in setting up a meeting with the Taliban, which we have agreed to try to do.

"They want to give some more evidence of the fact that Yvonne is a journalist.

"'We have also contacted the Pakistani authorities, and had some quite positive feedback from them."

On Wednesday, the Taliban accused her of being a member of the special forces