LIMA - Talks to end Peru's month-long hostage crisis crept forward yesterday as Marxist rebels holding 74 hostages at the Japanese ambassador's home agreed to join a "guarantor" committee to oversee a peaceful solution.
"The proposal to set up a committee is acceptable," the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) leader, Mr Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, said in a radio conversation from within the residence.
Mr Cerpa pledged that the rebels would not "execute" any of their hostages. "We have never spoken of executions."