The World : Duarte Agrees to Talks

Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte said that his government has accepted a rebel proposal to hold talks in Mexico City on Aug. 20. Duarte said the meeting between representatives of the U.S.-backed government and the leftist rebels will be private and preliminary but may lead to a third formal meeting similar to two held in 1984. Details of the Mexico City meeting have not been made public, but government officials expressed doubts that Duarte will take part, as he did in the 1984 talks. Those meetings failed to make any progress toward a peace settlement in the long guerrilla war. Roman Catholic Church leaders have been acting as go-betweens in arranging the meetings.