Naga leaders hold talks to save truce

The talks, held late on Monday, were the first formal dialogue between the government and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (SS Khaplang), which has observed a truce with Indian forces since 2001.

"They discussed the ceasefire and how to continue talks," an Indian home ministry official said. "The Nagas had some demands about the ceasefire monitoring group and they will be examined."

The two sides would meet again but no dates were set, he added.

The Naga rebellion is India's oldest insurgency, and security analysts say peace with the Nagas is crucial to a broader peace in the northeast -- seven states connected to the rest of India by a thin strip of land and home to dozens of insurgent groups.

The Khaplang faction of the NSCN is the second most powerful separatist group in Nagaland.

A more powerful group, the NSCN (Issac-Muivah) has held repeated talks with the Indian government since it started a ceasefire in 1997.

But there has been little progress over the rebels' central demands -- the unification of Naga-dominated areas in northeast India and ultimately independence.

Both NSCN factions, which split in the late 1980s, have thousands of fighters, and raise money mainly through "taxes".

More than 20,000 people have died in the over five-decades-old Naga insurgency.