ROME, March 18 (Reuters) - Italy's government still has no reason to believe that Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo has been freed, a government spokesman told Reuters.

The Taliban who had been holding Mastrogiacomo said earlier on Sunday they had released Mastrogiacomo to a third party.

"We have seen reports that he has been handed over to a third party of tribal chiefs. That is not a liberation," the government spokeman told Reuters.

Mastrogiacomo and two colleagues were seized in the lawless southern province of Helmand last week and the Taliban said he had confessed to spying for British troops.

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