CASTRO MAY GIVE PERUVIAN GUERRILLAS ASYLUM.

Byline: Calvin Sims The New York Times

After unexpectedly diverting his executive jet to Cuba on Monday, President Alberto Fujimori of Peru said Fidel Castro had agreed conditionally to give asylum to the Marxist guerrillas holding 72 hostages at the Japanese Embassy residence in Lima, Peru.

Fujimori's appeal to Cuba raised hopes in Peru for the first time in weeks, but some diplomats were skeptical that the mission would lead to an end of the 76-day impasse.

The Peruvian leader said Castro told him that Cuba would accept the Tupac Amaru rebels, who say they take their inspiration from the Cuban revolution, but only if the guerrillas and all other parties to the standoff formally requested it.

Since storming the Japanese envoy's residence during a diplomatic reception Dec. 17, the guerrillas have insisted repeatedly that they have no interest in leaving Peru for a third-country sanctuary.

``Cuba is willing to cooperate, but not to participate as a mediator,'' said Fujimori, whose comments were broadcast live on Peruvian radio and on Spanish-language stations across the region. ``If we can arrive at a solution, our goal is to have asylum in Cuba. There is a good climate now to find a solution.''

Fujimori, who flew to the Dominican Republic on Sunday to discuss possible asylum there for the rebels, received a red-carpet welcome in Havana and met for several hours with Castro in the presidential palace.

The image of the two disparate leaders - the hemisphere's last communist ruler alongside one of the continent's most ardent anti-communists - was enough to stir optimism in Peru that some kind of deal was in the works. Although Fujimori has met Castro at Latin American summit meetings and recently described him as ``a personal friend,'' it was his first visit to Cuba as president.

Cuba, which has a history of accepting guerrilla hostage-takers, has long been rumored as a possible refuge for the Tupac Amaru rebels, on a list of destinations that also includes Jamaica, Panama, Eastern Europe and the Dominican Republic.

In a brief press conference after the meeting, Fujimori said his discussions with Castro were ``fruitful'' and covered trade and health care issues in addition to conditions under which Cuba would receive the Tupac Amaru rebels.

Castro greeted Fujimori at Jose Marti airport Monday morning, but the Cuban leader did not attend the press conference, and there was no immediate comment from the Cuban government about the meeting between the two men.

Victor Joy Way, president of the Peruvian Congress, said in a radio interview in Lima on Monday that Fujimori's meeting with Castro had moved Peru ``closer to a solution to the hostage siege.''