Vipin Haokip, the leader of the Kuki National Army, the armed wing of the Kuki National Organisation, on Tuesday said his outfit was willing to negotiate with the Centre on its demand for a separate state.

The negotiations should lead to an amicable settlement by establishment of a tripartite arrangement to accommodate Meitei, Naga and Kuki, Haokip said.

He said the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) must stop claiming land occupied by the Kukis in Manipur.

KNO spokesperson Seilen Haokip said, "That Kukis were a sovereign nation before the British colonised their land should be recognised."

Terming its earlier demand for separate Kuki states in India and Myanmar as unrealistic and unreasonable, the spokesperson said, "What we demand is recognition of the Kukis by legitimisation of Kuki land by grant of statehood."

The KNO/KNA was formed in 1990 and is now the torchbearer of the issue of Kuki territorial integrity, which is being threatened by the NSCN (I-M)'s demand for 'Greater Nagaland'.