Mexico: Zapatista leader opens indigenous conference

In Mexico, the Zapatista rebel leader, Subcomandante Marcos, has opened a two-day congress of indigenous peoples attended by thousands of Indians, students and foreign sympathisers.

In a speech, the rebel leader criticised President Vicente Fox for not going far enough to meet the demands of the indigenous peoples for more autonomy.

But he called for more dialogue, rather than more fighting.

The gathering is one of the highlights of the Zapatista rebel leadership's extraordinary two-week national tour which reaches the capital, Mexico City, in a week's time.

Both events are aimed, in part, at increasing the pressure on the National Congress to pass the Indian rights bill sent to it by President Fox.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service