Naga leaders on Saturday held the first formal parleys with the Centre since top rebel leader Thuingaleng Muivah arrived in the country in December, and the two sides agreed to continue discussions to find a solution to the insurgency in Nagaland.
"The outcome was very positive, and we had respectable discussions," senior National Socialist Council of Nagaland - Isak-Muivah leader R H Raising, who was part of the group's four-member team at the talks, told PTI.
The NSCN-IM team led by Muivah and the government delegation headed by Union Minister of State Oscar Fernandes held detailed discussions on political issues during the talks that lasted about 90 minutes, Raising said without giving details.
The two sides agreed to meet again later in March, possibly in the last week of the month. "It is imperative for both sides to continue these discussions," Raising said.
Home Secretary V K Duggal and former home secretary K Padmanabhaiah, the interlocutor for the Naga talks, were part of the government team.
Sources said Muivah is expected to return to Nagaland soon to continue consultations with civil society and tribal groups on the NSCN-IM's key demands like the integration of all Naga-inhabited areas of the northeast.
Muivah and NSCN-IM chairman Isak Chishi Swu have been engaged in drumming up support in Nagaland for this demand, which cast a shadow over the recent assembly polls in Manipur.
The Manipur government is strongly opposed to the move, and the Centre put off talks with the NSCN-IM till the end of the polls.
The Centre and the NSCN-IM have held numerous rounds of talks in India and abroad since they agreed to a truce in August 1997.