SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico's Zapatista rebels
                  said Monday they will march in their trademark ski masks from the southern
                  state of Chiapas to Mexico City to lobby Congress for the passage of an Indian
                  rights bill.

                  The march by 25 Zapatistas will be led by their leader, Subcomandante Marcos,
                  and will be his first trip to Mexico City since his 1994 uprising, Marcos said in a
                  statement released to the news media on Monday.

                  The group will leave February 25 from San
                  Cristobal de las Casas, 460 miles (735 kms)
                  southeast of Mexico City, and will travel through
                  nine states before reaching the capital on March
                  6. The rebels expect to be joined by sympathizers
                  along the way.

                  The plan was announced in a statement dated January 6 and signed by Marcos,
                  who added that the rebels will march in the ski masks that have become their
                  movement's symbol.

                  The rebels staged an uprising January 1, 1994, sparking six years of unrest
                  between their sympathizers and paramilitary groups in the troubled southern
                  state.

                  Vicente Fox, Mexico's first president from an opposition party in more than 70
                  years, took office December 1 promising to restart peace talks long stalled under
                  the previous administration.

                  In an effort to follow through on that promise, he has withdrawn troops from
                  two military bases, released 17 Zapatista prisoners and sent the Indian rights bill
                  to Congress.

                  The rebels have said they are encouraged by Fox's actions, but have called for
                  the release of all Zapatista prisoners and the closure of more military bases in
                  Chiapas.

                  In the statement, Marcos criticized Fox, saying the president was misleading the
                  public by saying there were only 10,000 soldiers in Chiapas.

                  "Either Fox doesn't know how to count or he wants to fool us," Marcos said.

                  He also accused the government of fortifying two military bases at the same time
                  that it had closed two others.

                  However, in an interview with the newspaper La Jornada published Monday,
                  Marcos said the rebels have no desire to return to arms.

                  "We want to replace our weapons and convert our poverty into an instrument
                  that we can use to fight for liberty and democracy," he said.