REBELS SOFTEN STANCE IN PERU HOSTAGE STANDOFF.

Byline: Associated Press 

Rebels offered a morale-boosting favor to their 83 remaining hostages Sunday, and the rigid positions of the Tupac Amaru and the Peruvian government appeared to soften as the standoff neared its third week.

Tupac Amaru guerrillas holding diplomats and businessmen in the home of the Japanese ambassador have stopped uttering their key demand that hundreds of fellow rebels be freed from Peruvian prisons, and they have not repeated their initial threat to execute hostages.

In a move Sunday sure to bolster the hostages, the Red Cross said the rebels would permit hostages to send messages to their families today, and that it would deliver the replies the following day.

The rebels released 20 hostages Saturday, after President Alberto Fujimori sent a Cabinet minister to initiate direct government contact with the rebels. The move was a departure from Fujimori's stated policy of not negotiating with ``terrorists.''

Whether the negotiator, Education Minister Domingo Palermo, gave anything in return for the freedom of the 20 is not clear. He said only that he had a ``casual conversation'' with Nestor Cerpa, the leader of the guerrillas who took over the residence during a gala cocktail party Dec. 17.

Guerrillas initially seized some 500 hostages. But in staged releases that began almost immediately the number has been reduced to 83, a figure that analysts say is much more manageable for the 20 or so rebel captors.

The Dominican ambassador to Peru, one of those released Saturday, described his 12 days in captivity as stressful. ``We lived moments of great tension inside. One never knows on what thread life hangs,'' Jose Ramon Diazhe said Sunday.

At the nearby Church of Our Lady of the Pillar, worshipers sought divine protection for the remaining hostages.

``In these days that we've had the problem with the hostages, I think that people in Peru have prayed more than they ever did during the year,'' the Rev. Clemente Sobrado said.

Last week, a priest who voluntarily remained with the captives said Mass. There was no word this weekend about services inside the compound.

Also Sunday, the Red Cross delivered 40 pounds of imported dog food for Japanese Ambassador Morihita Aoki's two German shepherds. Aoki is a hostage and reportedly has not been allowed to get near his dogs.

As time wears on, the guerrillas - who appear to be seeking a political role in their country through their act - will find it increasingly difficult to sully their image by harming the captives.

Sociologist Carlos Ivan Degregorio, an expert in insurgencies, said in an interview published Sunday that he believes the rebels need to keep releasing hostages to stay in the spotlight.

The rebels ``have no other choice in order to stay in the news and keep the initiative,'' he said.

Eloy Avila, who is acting Bolivian ambassador while the regular envoy is captive, said he found hope in the rebels' actions.

``We think this is a sign that it is very probable that the problem will solve itself in the next few days,'' he said.