Hostage takers aim to establish nationalist indigenous movement modelled on the ancient Incan Empire

Rebels 'agree end to Peru siege'

Armed followers of a former army major who seized a remote police station have laid down their arms, Peru's president Alejandro Toledo has said. Around 150 men held the station in Andahuaylas despite the arrest of their leader, Maj Antauro Humala, on Monday.

Maj Humala had called for President Toledo to quit, accusing him of "betraying" Peru. His "reservists" held at least 17 hostages since seizing the police station on Saturday. "They are in the process of handing over their weapons right now," the AFP news agency reported Mr Toledo as saying. There would be no chance of negotiations with the rebels, he added.

Earlier, statements on Peruvian radio stations indicated that the rebels, veterans of Peru's conflicts with Ecuador and against leftist rebels, had agreed to lay down their weapons. Some were awaiting the arrival of an official commission to accept their surrender, Reuters reported.

Arrest

Maj Humala was arrested late on Monday after he emerged from the police station for abortive talks aimed at negotiating a surrender. He had earlier withdrawn an offer to surrender after Peruvian forces surrounded the police station and threatened an attack against the rebels. An assault was only prevented after a request by the country's human rights commission.

Four police officers were killed and 19 wounded when the rebels seized the station on Saturday. At least 17 hostages were kept inside the police station during the four-day siege.

Dead and wounded

The Peruvian authorities stepped up their presence around the police station on Monday.

Live TV pictures showed heavily armed police and troops in small groups hugging walls as they moved through the town while gunfire crackled in the background. Maj Humala said that one of his men was killed by a sniper.

Photographs taken inside the rebels' positions showed one man lying covered in blood, surrounded by rebel soldiers, and a second man being led away with a head wound. But within hours of the offensive being launched, Peruvian security forces reportedly put it on hold.

The rebels accused the unpopular Mr Toledo of corruption and of selling out to business interests in Chile, which is Peru's historic rival. But the BBC's South America correspondent Elliot Gotkine reports that the group's broader aim is to establish a nationalist indigenous movement modelled on the ancient Inca Empire.