Imphal, February 18: The crucial round of peace talks between the Centre and NSCN (I-M), scheduled to be held here but postponed due to forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, will be held in Bangkok early next month.

Official sources said that with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and poll dates to be announced soon it would be futile to hold discussions as there cannot be major political decisions with a caretaker government in power.

The NSCN (I-M) has agreed to the decision and the two sides will continue with their talks on foreign locations.

"Moreover, if NSCN (I-M) chairman Isak Swu and general secretary T Muivah would visit India prior to polls, it would send out a wrong message that the visit u aimed helping the ruling coalition in the polls," the sources said.

The top-level political discussions between the Naga leaders and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and others - assuming that National Democratic Affiance is returned to power at the Centre - will be significantly delayed, by as much as four or five months.

Muivah and Swu visited India last year after 36 years and held discussions with top Indian leadership including opposition leaders.

Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga, a former rebel and facilitator in the Naga peace talks met Muivah and others in Bangkok in the first week of this month to prepare the groundwork for the upcoming Naga negotiations and discuss certain problems that had cropped up in the peace process.

In the last round of Centre-NSCN (I-M) talks also held in Bangkok in last December, it was decided that the next round of talks will be held in Delhi early this year.

However, this round of talks had proved quite tough with Muivah insisting that the Centre had closed the door on a future settlement as the Prime Minister during his visit to Nagaland last October had remarked that formation of 'Greater Nagaland', the key demand of NSCN (I-M), was impossible without a political consensus.

The statement was welcomed by the other states of the region, which fiercely oppose the NSCN (I-M) view, and the territorial question is a highly emotional and sensitive issue in the North-East, showing fundamental differences in approaches over history and ethnicity.

Later, however, the Naga leaders agreed to come to Delhi for discussions with Vajpayee and others.

Since the Delhi round of talks last year, five rounds of talks have been held on foreign locations.

Although substantial progress have been made on less contentious issues including autonomy and financial package, Naga leaders are intransigent on their demand for 'Greater Nagaland' comprising Naga majority areas in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

The Prime Minister had earlier assured Manipur Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh that any solution to the vexed Naga issue would not lead to dismemberment of Manipur.

"The Centre is considering various proposals including extending the ambit of Article 371 (A) to Naga majority areas in the neighboring states of Nagaland in lieu of demand for greater Nagaland," the sources said.

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