Hostages `may be free on Christmas Eve'

More than 300 Peruvian and foreign hostages being held in the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima may be freed unharmed on Christmas Eve, writes Phil Davison.

A leader of the Tupac Amaru guerrillas holding the captives, calling himself Comandante Evaristo, was quoted as making the promise in a call from the besieged building to a local radio station yesterday.

There was no independent confirmation from Red Cross officials or diplomatic negotiators who have been coming and going to the residence since the drama began last Tuesday night.

Diplomats here were unsure as to whether to take the statement seriously. It could be a ploy intended to discourage President Alberto Fujimori from ordering a military assault on the building, they said.

Meanwhile, Mr Fujimori kept up a war of nerves yesterday with the estimated 22 Marxist guerrillas holding 340 hostages. Speaking for the first time since Tuesday's attack, the Peruvian president said he had no intention of negotiating with the guerrillas, whom he described as a "subversive group". However, the president of Peru's Congress, Victor Joy Way, said that Mr Fujimori had also rejected the military option, telling "numerous countries" who have offered elite units to help in an armed assault that they will not be needed.