Manmohan starts peace talks with Ulfa

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said Manmohan Singh chaired the inaugural session of the talks with an 11-member civil society group, which the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) has chosen to represent them.

The government did not mention if there would be future talks or specifics of the discussion and released a short statement after they concluded.

"I am willing to listen to whatever concerns that you may raise. I am willing to discuss issues bothering the people of Assam," Singh's media advisor Sanjaya Baru quoted him as telling the delegation.

The Ulfa, a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland since 1979, last month nominated the 11-member People's Consultative Group led by noted Assamese writer Indira Goswami.

"The presence of the prime minister in the talks is in itself an indication of the sincerity of the Indian government in solving the insurgency problem in Assam," Gogoi told AFP.

"The talks would primarily try and work out a mutually acceptable peace process leading to formal declaration of a bilateral ceasefire between the Ulfa and the central government," Goswami told AFP.

The Ulfa representatives include journalists, human rights activists, a former football player, an engineer, a lawyer and a doctor.

The team of Ulfa representatives arrived in New Delhi from Assam's main city Guwahati for the talks Tuesday.

"We have come for the talks with a positive frame of mind to facilitate and prepare the ground so that a ceasefire could be worked out and then direct talks between the Ulfa leadership and New Delhi could begin," said Haider Hussain, editor of the leading Assamese daily newspaper Asomiya Pratidin.

New Delhi last week formally invited the group for talks following a letter from the Ulfa offering to begin a formal dialogue.

"I look forward to a fruitful and positive discussion with the group in a constructive spirit," M.K. Narayanan, India's national security adviser, said in the letter inviting the Ulfa representatives for talks in New Delhi.

The last round of direct talks between Ulfa rebels and the Indian government was held in New Delhi in 1992.

They ended abruptly after the five Ulfa rebels -- who were released from prison for the dialogue with then prime minister Narasimha Rao -- went underground.

"The situation then was quite different from now with the people of Assam clamouring for peace, and our leadership too is equally keen to resolve the conflict through negotiations," jailed Ulfa leader Pranati Hazarika told AFP in a local court in Assam.

The Ulfa is one of the most organized militant groups in India's northeast, where more than 30 rebel groups operate with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy.

At least 15,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in Assam since 1979 when the Ulfa, the state's first rebel group was founded.