[kde-linux] Backing up KMAIL messages

[waz]

Good day,

I have several hundred email items in my inbox and in my sent mail folders 
that I would like to archive.
I would like to be able to access these files by  recipient, sender, date, 
subject much like the KMail does normally with files in the inbox, sent-mail 
and such. I do not find the filenames the individual files to be especially 
informative being just a string of numbers and characters.

I would be happy to just copy the .mail/inbox and .mail/sent-mail directories 
provided I could eventually re-import them into KMail or other suitable 
reader and sort by name/subject/date... as mentioned above.

The ability to "Un-import" the files once any backup material had been 
referenced would be ideal as I do not need my mail reader to become filled 
with old messages.

I use KMail 1.7.1 and KDE 3.2.3
What options do I have?

Thanks,

Waz