Indian envoys were scheduled Tuesday to meet in Amsterdam with a north-eastern tribal separatist group, amid threats by the rebels to call off a nine-year-old cease-fire if New Delhi does not meet its demands.
Federal Minister Oscar Fernandes and New Delhi's main peace interlocutor K. Padmanabhaiah will meet top leaders of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), the main rebel group in Nagaland state, an official said.
"This is another crucial round of negotiations and the three-day talks will cover all substantive issues to solve the country's oldest insurgency issue," the Indian home ministry official told AFP requesting anonymity.
The NSCN-IM, led by guerrilla leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, have warned of serious consequences if India refuses to accede to its demands which include the creation of a "Greater Nagaland" by slicing of parts of three neighbouring provinces.
The move is aimed at uniting 1.2 million Nagas living in the region.
But the demand is strongly opposed by the states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
The NSCN-IM and New Delhi are currently observing a cease-fire first reached in August 1997. The truce of subject to annual renewal and the current deadline expires in June 2007.
A statement by the rebel group on the eve of the talks warned that the group "would be compelled to take measures accordingly if the government does not respect our views.
"No mistake should be committed to play games with the Nagas because this would prove costly for the central government," it said.
India and the NSCN-IM have held at least 50 rounds of peace talks in the past nine years to end one of South Asia's longest-running insurgencies.
The Naga insurgency has claimed around 25,000 lives since India's independence from Britain in 1947.
The Amsterdam talks will also discuss reported clashes between rival factions of the NSCN. The two warring NSCN groups are fighting a bitter turf war for territorial supremacy with an estimated 200 rebels killed in gang wars in the past five years.