Monday, February 6 2006 16:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Guwahati: The second round of talks with the Centre and the ULFA constituted Peoples' Consultative Group (PCG) was scheduled to be held tomorrow in New Delhi amidst the hope of paving the way for direct talks between the Government and the banned outfit.

The run-up to the second round of talks was marked by several hitches like the violence unleashed by the outfit prior to the Republic Day and the latest being the ULFA-AASU spat on the issue of sovereignty.

With the Centre delaying the announcement for the date of second round of talks, the ULFA recently triggered several bomb blasts in oil pipelines, power plants and in Guwahati killing four people, injuring several others and damaging properties worth lakh of rupees.

Following the violence, Centre announced the date for the talks but this was marked by controversy as only five of the nine members were invited for the talks.

The ULFA reacted in its mouthpiece 'Freedom' by asserting that it was not in favour of any secret talks with the Centre but would like to hold it on a world platform like the UN.

The outfit had expressed doubts on the sincerity of the Central government as it had invited only a few members of the PCG for the forthcoming talks.

The PCG also stated the group was not in favour of talkswith only a few of its members as proposed by the Centre but all nine members will participate in tomorrow's talks.