The source, who asked not to be named, said the aid worker had been taken "to a calm place where she is resting and will undergo a medical examination".

She will then be questioned, as is customary in such cases, by the French secret service who will try to find out as much as possible about her detention.

Celine Cordelier, who is aged between 20 and 30, was captured on April 3 in the southwestern province of Nimroz with another French volunteer, Eric Damfreville, and three Afghans.

They were all working for the non-governmental organisation Terre d'Enfance (A World For Our Children).

Cordelier was freed in the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday with a message from her captors demanding the withdrawal of France's troops in the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force.