Salvadoran regime urged to start talks with rebels

El Salvador's top churchman, a human rights group, and dissident Army officers urged their government to start talks with leftist leaders to end the country's three-year-old civil war.

Msgr. Arturo Rivera y Damas said ''the serious majority of Salvadoran people'' back United States Ambassador Deane R. Hinton's demand that El Salvador improve its human rights record or face a cutoff of US aid. The prelate, who has frequently been at odds with US policy in El Salvador, called for the government to start talks with the leftists.