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HYDERABAD, India, Friday (AFP) One of India's oldest and most violent Maoist groups is pressing for talks to end a 30-year-old insurgency that has claimed more than 10,000 lives in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

The ultra radical People's War Group (PWG) has been fighting an armed rebellion on a platform of land reforms and greater social justice in Andhra Pradesh's tribal and underdeveloped regions.

The group claims it has already "liberated" some pockets within the state where it is running its own parallel government.

Now, however, the rebels are talking peace and have offered a three-month long ceasefire, calling on the state government to reciprocate and lift its ban on the group to facilitate negotiations. The administration of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been guarded in its response, while announcing that it would be ready for talks once the "modalities and agenda" have been worked out.

The state's police force, however, is bitterly opposed to any discussions, insisting that the PWG is flirting with peace in order to buy time to regroup their forces, which are currently on the run.

G. Hargopal, professor of Human Rights at the University of Hyderabad, is skeptical of the police argument.

"For 30 years now the police have been claiming they're on the verge of wiping out this outfit. But the problem continues because this is not just a law and order issue. The police therefore have nothing to loose in granting some time to see if this initiative can succeed," Hargopal told AFP.

The Naidu government is under considerable political and economic pressure to find a long-term solution to the Maoist problem.

The rebels have assassinated some senior politicians and several local level party workers, making it impossible for political groups to operate at the grassroots level in certain areas of the state.

On the economic front, the PWG has shaken investor confidence and dented Naidu's efforts to project Andhra Pradesh as India's dynamic new hub for the infotech and biotech industries.

In a wave of well-orchestrated attacks aimed at attracting maximum publicity, the rebels bombed several industrial units across the state late last year.

The targets included a Coca Cola bottling plant and a factory owned by one of India's largest corporate houses, the Tatas.

However, it is not just the state which is under pressure to find peace. The rebels have paid a heavy price for the protracted struggle.

"Like the gun, talks too are a weapon for a revolutionary group so we've never turned our backs on it," said PWG ideologue, Gadar.

"But most importantly, the people want us to talk and we cannot afford to ignore them," Gadar told AFP.

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