Lima blast blamed on Shining Path

A senior government official in Peru has blamed last month's bomb attack near the American Embassy in Lima on a radical splinter group of the Shining Path.

Nine people died in the blast which came days ahead of a visit to Lima by President Bush.

Ministers say the splinter group is headed by what they call the bloodiest former leaders of the Shining Path, known only as Alipio and Dalton.

The Interior Deputy Minister, Gino Costa, said the authorities were on the trail of the killers.

The group is opposed to the leader of the Shining Path, Abimael Guzman, who is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison on a naval base outside Lima.

He has called on his group to lay down arms and reach a political solution.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service