WORLD IN BRIEF : EL SALVADOR : Rebels, Government Begin Key Talks

Negotiators for the Salvadoran government and leftist rebels began a key round of talks in San Jose, Costa Rica, aimed at ending a decade of civil war. The insurgents said it was up to the government to avoid violence by agreeing to purge and restructure the army. Army officials meanwhile said the guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front attacked paramilitary civil defense positions overnight. Rebel and government representatives agreed to a series of talks last April in a U.N.-brokered accord, but the two sides remain deadlocked over rebel demands for a purge of officers who, they charge, have been involved in human rights abuses.