The Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, which has been fighting the Turkish state for the last 15 years, has said it will send a group of rebels to Turkey with a message of peace for the authorities there.

The PKK was responding to an appeal made on Wednesday by its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan for a gesture of goodwill, which he suggested should involve the PKK handing in some weapons.

This could be the beginning of a real peace process, but at the moment all the initiative is coming from one side.

Turkey does not trust the PKK, nor does it regard the rebel movement as a legitimate representative of Kurdish opinion.

Nevertheless, the PKK is pressing forward with a series of declarations that its campaign of violence has come to an end; that it is withdrawing from Turkish soil.

Turkey cautious

The trouble is these statements have been difficult to put to the test, but now the PKK has gone one step further in response to its leader's appeal.

A written statement says a group of rebels will travel to Turkey for a peaceful democratic solution, carrying letters from the PKK central committee to the Turkish authorities.

It did not say how many rebels would take part or when or where they would arrive.

But if the PKK lives up to its promise this time, its credentials will have to be taken a little more seriously.

The Turkish establishment remains extremely cautious. The Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, has said only that tolerance will be shown if anyone from the PKK gives up their weapons and surrenders to Turkish justice.

Parliament has recently passed a very limited repentance law which allows rebels who have played no direct part in violent actions to give themselves up.

Death sentence

But there has been no response to that offer from PKK militants in the mountains.

The only ones who have applied to take advantage of the law are already in Turkish jails. Distrust on both sides remains understandably high.

Meanwhile, some PKK members believe Mr Ocalan has betrayed the cause in an attempt to prevent Turkey carrying out the death sentence passed against him.

If Mr Ocalan's peace delegation fails to win any long-term concessions, it may reinforce some Kurds' belief that he has either betrayed their cause, or at least badly miscalculated.