The talks are expected to begin on February three, NSCN (I-M) sources said. The NSCN (IM) delegation had reached the Capital on Saturday night. The Centre would be represented by a group of ministers led by Union Minister Oscar Fernandes. The senior NSCN (IM) leaders, who have been in India for the last two months at the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, were given what the leaders call a 'mandate' by a two-day Naga people's consultative meet on the on-going peace process at the organisation's headquarters 'Camp Hebron', off Dimapur recently.

The two Naga leaders, who had arrived here from Amsterdam in the last week of November, had met the Prime Minister, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and had held parleys with the Centre's representatives for the Naga peace process K Padmanabhaiah and top officials before going to Nagaland. Swu and Muivah had held peace parleys with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his deputy L K Advani and top officials in January last year during their first visit to this country in over three decades. The security forces and NSCN (IM) had reached a ceasefire accord in 1997 and this has been holding since then.