New Delhi, Jun 20: With the Government reluctant to concede the NSCN-IM's key demand for unifying all Nagainhabited areas in the North East, the rebel group is expected to focus on "greater autonomy" for Nagaland during crucial talks with the Centre's negotiators at the Hague on June 22-24, sources said.

Autonomy is part of the 30-point "charter of demands" submitted by the NSCN-IM, and this includes a greater say in the utilisation of natural resources, a separate Constitution, a separate flag and control in areas like finance, defence and policing, they said.

In the talks, the Naga side is likely to put pressure to get "some kind of concession" from New Delhi on its charter of demands to "please the domestic constituencies" that have become desperate due to the "delay" in the peace process, the sources said.

The NSCN-IM, which began talks with the Government in 1997 after the two sides agreed to a cease-fire, is also likely to submit a fresh proposal on the kind of autonomy it wants for evaluation by the Centre, they said.

The Naga outfit has made a case for a "federal relationship" with the Indian Union.

It has argued that the nature of this relationship should be incorporated in the country's Constitution as well as the separate one for Nagaland, if it is granted, since this alone can ensure a lasting settlement to the Nation's oldest insurgency problem, the sources said.

The Government's negotiators, led by Union Minister Oscar Fernandes, are expected to put forward the Centre's view on the extent of flexibility under the Constitution that could take care of regional diversities and aspirations, the sources said.

This round of talks is considered crucial since these will be the final discussions before the expiry of the current spell of the cease-fire on July 31.In the last meeting, Fernandes and K Padmanabhaiah, the main interlocutor for the Naga talks, reportedly objected to the NSCN-IM sending an "emissary" to China some time back, the sources said.

They also objected to the outfit associating with the Parliamentarians for National Self-Determination, an organisation floated in Britain by a known India-baiter and Labour peer Nazir Ahmed.

The negotiators reportedly cautioned the Naga outfit "not to jeopardies the peace process through its actions" of associating with anti-India organisations or foreign countries that have nothing to do with the Naga issue.

Apart from Fernandes and Padmanabhiah, officials of the Home Ministry will take part in the talks while the NSCN-IM team will be led by chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah.

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