The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) and officials have met more than 50 times over the past nine years to try to forge an end to the country's longest-running insurgency.

But little progress has been made on the group's key demands for the right to self-rule and the creation of a new state containing all Naga dominated areas, which is opposed by other tribes living amongst them.

Leaders of the Kuki community recently warned they would go on the war path if areas they inhabit were handed to the Nagas.

"Let the government of India give the Nagas what they have been demanding, but they can't touch an inch of Kuki land to please the Nagas," Satkhokai Chongloi, a senior Kuki leader told Reuters in Imphal, capital of neighbouring Manipur state.

The Kukis live across five northeastern states - Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura - three of which are also home to mainly Christian Nagas the NSCN says must be included in any territorial deal.

"We urge the Indian government to stop grabbing land belonging to others for the NSCN-IM, or civil war is inevitable," Chongloi said.

The NSCN-IM said after the last round of talks in October the stalemate was due to insincerity on the part of the government.