The 35-year-old was described as being in good health and is to be taken to the main southeastern city of Diyarbakir for brief questioning about his ordeal, the official said on condition of anonymity.

The Briton was snatched on Saturday by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who had stopped the bus he was travelling on between the Black Sea city of Trabzon and Diyarbakir.

No details were immediately available about the circumstances of his release and his identity has not been disclosed.

Saturday's abduction came amid an upsurge in activity by the rebel group, which last month kidnapped 10 people from a village in the Kurd-dominated southeast. The motive was unknown.

In a separate incident on Monday, two Turkish soldiers were killed in the Diyarbakir region when a landmine laid by rebels exploded, a local security source said.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed some 45,000 lives.