Everything's finished without blood and shooting, and I hope the girls feel okay

Mamuka Areshidze, negotiator

The three were reported to be "tired, but relieved" after being set free by their abductors, whose identity and demands are unclear.

The group had been working in the Pankisi gorge, home to hundreds of refugees fleeing the war in neighbouring Chechnya.

Negotiations

Police have not revealed the details of the kidnappers' demands, or what was discussed in the negotiations led by Georgia's Deputy Interior Minister Kakhi Bakuradze.

The pair's Georgian driver, Yuri Durchiyev, was also released

But one negotiator, former Georgian parliament deputy Mamuka Areshidze said the three's captors had won a promise from authorities not to be prosecuted over the incident.

"Everything's finished without blood and shooting, and I hope the girls feel okay," said Mr Areshidze.

Francois Bellon, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), described the worker's release as "incredibly beautiful".

"We are very, very happy that it finished like this," he said.

Security review

However a Red Cross spokesman warned the organisation would review the security situation before resuming work in the Pankisi Gorge area.

"Of course we're not going back to that valley until we're sure security conditions will allow us to go there," said ICRC spokesman Chris Bowers.

Following the kidnapping, aid organisation, Medicins Sans Frontieres also suspended its operations in the same area.

Hostage-taking and kidnapping are frequent in mountainous regions of Georgia, parts of which remain outside of government control.

Chechnya link

Initially, the ICRC feared the group had been taken across the border into neighbouring Chechnya.

In 1996, six Red Cross workers were murdered in the Chechen Capital Grozny during the first conflict in the republic.

A wave of further kidnappings and abductions forced most aid agencies to remove their operations from the region.

In the face of continued uncertainty over security, only a handful of relief workers remain in Chechnya, despite a huge refugee crisis caused by the resumption of fighting.

Russia has previously accused Georgia of tolerating Chechen separatists, and say they have identified rebel bases and camps near the Pankisi gorge