SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (Reuters) --
                  Mexico's Zapatista rebels Monday ended a weekend of fractious talks
                  with a congressional peace commission by saying they had no
                  plans to lay down their arms.

                  "We will not be prepared to disarm at any time ... as long as indigenous
                  rights are not guaranteed and ... until all Mexicans are living a dignified life,"
                  Zapatista commander "Tacho" said in an interview in this colonial town in the
                  highlands of violence-torn Chiapas state.

                  The first Chiapas peace talks in two years nearly collapsed over the
                  weekend after the Zapatistas called the congressmen racists and the
                  legislators responded by offering to send the rebels back to their jungle
                  hideouts if they were not interested in negotiating.

                  Late Sunday, however, the two sides found a small patch of common
                  ground, saying they had opened a line of communication and would soon set
                  a date for another round of talks.

                  But the rebels refused to accept two sealed envelopes which President
                  Ernesto Zedillo's government had asked the mediators to deliver, reportedly
                  containing an offer to immediately restart direct peace talks.

                  In the interview Monday, Tacho and two other rebel leaders, their faces
                  hidden behind ski masks, gave little indication of interest in meeting Zedillo's
                  representatives.

                  "The government is deaf and blind," said "Moises." "It does not realize that
                  it's not a government of the people." Another rebel, "Zebedeo," described
                  the government as a corpse.

                  The Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) staged an armed uprising
                  against the government on January 1, 1994, to demand indigenous rights in
                  Chiapas.

                  Fighting lasted only 10 days and a tenuous cease-fire has been in effect
                  since. But hundreds have died in sporadic clashes between Zapatista
                  supporters and local backers of Zedillo's Institutional Revolutionary Party
                  (PRI).

                  Rebels want Indian autonomy

                  The rebel leaders reiterated that they would not meet directly with the
                  government until five conditions laid down nearly two years ago were met.
                  These included fulfillment of accords on Indian rights signed by both sides in
                  February 1996, the demilitarization of indigenous areas in Chiapas and the
                  dismantling of paramilitary groups.

                  The rebel leaders confirmed plans to have 5,000 Zapatistas fan across the
                  country for a "national consultation" on granting constitutional rights to the
                  country's 10 million indigenous people.

                  "We'll go by trains, buses, horses, donkeys and mules" to carry out the
                  consultation, Tacho said. "We're on the road in search of peace that can
                  only come from the people."

                  Talks between the Zedillo administration and the Zapatistas broke off in late
                  1996 after the government backed away from an Indian autonomy
                  agreement its negotiators had signed with the rebels. The government said
                  the accord overstepped the bounds of the constitution and threatened to tear
                  the country apart.

                  The rebels said top Zapatista leader Subcommander Marcos did not attend
                  the talks because of security concerns.

                  "We're not going to put him at risk," Tacho said.

                  Copyright 1998   Reuters.