GOVERNMENT TO TALK WITH ANGOLAN REBELS

Angola's government and opposition were close to agreement on peace talks, a top United Nations official said Wednesday as rebels fought their way south after their headquarters in central Angola was reportedly leveled.

UN special representative Margaret Anstee said the government agreed "in principle" to a site for peace talks proposed by rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.

"I have an agreement from both sides - what is left now is only to work out the details," Ms. Anstee told the Associated Press. Angolan state radio reported the talks would be held today in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

The independent Portuguese television station SIC in Lisbon reported that headquarters of the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, in Huambo had been reduced to "dust" by government shelling. Huambo is 329 miles southeast of Luanda.