Mexico's Zapatista guerrillas have marked the fifth anniversary of their uprising with a statement accusing the government of continuing a policy of exterminating the country' indigenous people.

The Zapatistas' statement was published on the Internet and broadcast to a group of supporters celebrating the anniversary in a remote camp in the southern state of Chiapas.

In the statement, the rebel leader known as Subcommandante Marcos vowed that the Zapatista rebels would continue to fight with peaceful means against what he described as the government's policy of ethnocide and extermination, and for improved rights for the country's 10 million Indians.

Failed talks

The statement follows an apparently fruitless attempt to renew peace talks last November and it hinted at the Zapatistas' continued reluctance to talk directly to the government. Some observers said the rebels appeared willing to talk only to sympathetic civilian groups.

The last round of direct talks stalled late in 1996 when the Zapatistas accused the Mexican government of failing to honour agreements to guarantee greater Indian autonomy. The government says those demands run counter to the Mexican constitution.

The Zapatistas are also demanding that the government withdraw its heavy military presence in Chiapas. The troops have been there ever since the rebel movement launched their uprising in the impoverished southern state on New Year's Day in 1994.