Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq freed eight captured soldiers and officials on Wednesday as part of peace efforts between Turkey and the rebel group aimed at ending a decades-long conflict, a Kurdish legislator said.

The rebels handed over six soldiers, a trainee local administrator and a police officer to a group of Kurdish legislators and human rights activists who had traveled to northern Iraq, where the rebels maintain bases, Adil Kurt, one of the lawmakers told The Associated Press by telephone.

He said they were on their way back to Turkey.

Five of the captives had been held by the rebels for more than a year, while three others were kidnapped in September.

The rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984. The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.

Turkey's government announced late last year that its intelligence agency was talking to the rebels' jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan with the aim of persuading the group to disarm.

The release follows a call by Ocalan, which was relayed by Kurdish legislators who were allowed to visit him last month on his prison island off Istanbul, as part of the peace process.

"We hope that the release will open the way for the peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue," Kurt said. "It is important that (the captive officials) are returned to their families safely."

Turkish officials welcomed news of their release.

"We are happy that our citizens who had been away from their country for so long, and from whom we had not received any news, are returning," the state-run Anadolu Agency quoted President Abdullah Gul as saying during a visit to Sweden.