Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said Saturday he wanted to catapult the 95-day hostage crisis into its final stage by restarting peace talks with Marxist rebels holding 72 VIPs at the Japanese ambassador's home.
After a 10-day break from negotiations, the two sides still lacked enough common ground for fresh face-to-face talks, Fujimori said. But his negotiator Domingo Palermo suggested a resumption might not be too far off."We are ready and hoping that at any moment the talks can resume," said Palermo, who was accompanying Fujimori on a whirl-wind tour of education centers in Lima's shanty-towns.
Fujimori told reporters: "To have direct talks we must find common ground and have the terrain prepared. If this were the case, we would enter in what we call the `final issues'. This is what we want."
During the suspension of talks - dubbed a period of "reflection" - the two sides have worked separately with the talks' guarantors to explore possible concessions that would bring a peaceful end to the standoff.
Fujimori continues to reject the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) hostage-takers' main demand for the release of some 450 jailed comrades. But there are signs he is prepared to make other concessions.
For the first time since early in the crisis, the government allowed Red Cross officials Friday to visit MRTA rebels in prison after the talks' guarantors formed a special committee to check on their health and conditions.
Improving prison conditions for the rebels is believed to be one of the main concessions Fujimori is willing to make to the MRTA.
The moves away from the negotiating table have led to intense speculation in Lima that the government has finally hammered out a package of concessions that could persuade the rebels to give up their hostages.
The New York Times reported that mediators have outlined a tentative agreement to end the crisis whereby rebels would take asylum in Cuba in exchange for early parole for some comrades jailed on lesser charges.