LAGOS, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian federal government on Thursday rejected all the preconditions canvassed by Nigeria's major militant group in the oil-rich Niger Delta region the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) before peace talks can commence.

    Godwin Abe, newly appointed Nigeria's Defense Minister, stated this to reporters in Abuja, noting that the government is willing to dialogue with anybody and relate with any person or group that can bring peace to this country but it is unwilling to accept any precondition before talks.

    Abe, who is also the chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Panel, was reacting to a question about the militants' demand that the Nigerian federal government withdraw the Joint Task Force (JTF) as a precondition for rapprochement.

    According to him, the ceasefire declared by the militants is a good sign, adding that the government expects that all aggrieved Nigerians within or without the Niger Delta would embrace this amnesty in good faith and in its totality.

    He affirmed that the government rejects all preconditions canvassed by the militants, one of which is their request for the withdrawal of troops from the oil-rich region.

    "They cannot give conditions to Government because Government was not invited to come there in the first instance, so Government will take decisions that affect the deployment of troops, until when conditions in the Niger Delta become ripe enough and law and order is comfortably restored," the Lagos-based Next newspaper quoted him as saying.

    Meanwhile, spokesperson and member of the Presidential Amnesty Panel, Timiebi Koripamo-Agary, while reacting to the ceasefire, declared that the ceasefire was a result of her panels' contact with the militants.

    The group had on Wednesday threatened to call off the truce following information that the JTF had dispatched seven gun boats with heavily armed troops from Warri and are heading to one of the camps located around the Delta and Ondo State border.

    It warned that if the information from a very reliable source within the JTF happens to be true, the ceasefire will be called off with immediate effect.

    But JTF Spokesman, Rabe Abubakar, said there is no troop deployment, as the military is implementing faithfully the amnesty.