New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Dec 7, 2004) told a major Naga insurgent outfit leaders that he favoured a "mutually acceptable and honourable" solution to the decades-old problem in Nagaland and wanted to ensure that the people there lived a life of peace with dignity and self-respect.

"Our Government will make sincere effort to find an honourable way out," he said during the 30-minute meeting with National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) NSCN (I-M) Chairman Isak Chisi Swu and General Secretary T Muivah in New Delhi.

Swu and Muivah, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday (Dec 5, 2004) night from Amsterdam to hold talks with Central leadership, said they sought a honourable solution while asserting that "a solution cannot be found in violence and blood".

Appreciating their remarks, Singh said he was in favour of a "mutually acceptable and honourable solution that can ensure that the Naga people live a life of peace with dignity and self-respect," according to PMO spokesman Sanjaya Baru.

The five-member NSCN (I-M) delegation, which also met Home Minister Shivraj Patil later, thanked the Prime Minister for his "warm hospitality" saying, "It is a measure of your great wisdom and we respect that".

Swu and Muivah had come to India in January 2003 after three decades and met the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy L K Advani.