A rebel group blamed for more than 500 bomb blasts in the past three decades in India's Assam state held its first peace talks Friday with the government in New Delhi, Home Ministry officials said.
A seven-member team of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which announced a unilateral ceasefire in July, handed over a charter of demands to Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the officials said.
Details of the demands were not immediately available.
ULFA Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa was present during the 80-minute, closed door talks with Chidambaram.
Rajkhowa was arrested in Bangladesh in 2009 and handed over to the Indian authorities. He was released on bail at the end of 2010 as part of the nascent peace process.
"The first meeting ended on a positive note," he told AFP.
Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who attended the meeting, said he hoped the talks would lead to a "permanent solution" to the ethnic violence in the oil- and tea-rich northeastern state.
"I am confident the two sides will be able to hammer out a permanent solution to the insurgency problem. Both sides are being flexible in their approach, which is a good sign," Gogoi told AFP.
ULFA, the largest separatist outfit in Assam, has been fighting for an independent homeland for ethnic Assamese since 1979.
The insurgency has claimed an estimated 10,000 lives.
Rajkhowa and several other top ULFA leaders have held several rounds of informal talks with New Delhi's chief negotiator P.C. Haldar since the ULFA chief's release from prison.
They also held a courtesy meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The only hold-out to the peace process is ULFA's military commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, who is believed to be hiding with around 100 armed cadres somewhere along the Myanmar-China border.
The ULFA leadership used to operate out of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, but the movement was severely weakened by a 2009 crackdown by the Bangladeshi authorities, under pressure from India.
