New Delhi  - The Indian government Friday asked Maoist guerrillas who seized control of a region in the eastern state of West Bengal to lay down their arms and come for talks as troops closed in on the area.

Over 1,500 state police and paramilitary soldiers were only kilometres from Lalgarh town and its adjoining cluster of villages which Maoists and tribal villagers claimed to have "liberated" earlier this week.

Police said 10 activists from the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) were killed in violence in the region and police stations and party offices were burnt down.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said he endorsed the appeal of the West Bengal government to the Maoists and tribals to come for talks.

News channels reported police and soldiers were converging on Lalgarh from three directions to break the siege, but the situation was tense as Maoist rebels fired on policemen and blew up a bridge to block the advance.

The Maoist forces include a 200-strong core group of fighters as well as 400 locally-trained armed fighters, the Times of India daily reported. Some 1,000 villagers armed with bows, arrows and swords could also clash with the police, the report said.

State officials told the NDTV network that the operation to flush out the Maoists would take time as the guerrillas were planning to use women and children as "human shields."

The state government had issued orders to "avoid firing as much as possible" as it did not want civilian casualties.

"They [the forces] are making progress ... So far the operation is going according to plan," Chidambaram said.

Maoist guerrillas, who operate in 13 Indian states, say they are fighting for the rights of the landless, poor and tribal people.

According to unofficial estimates, more than 3,000 people, including rebels, have been killed in Maoist violence since January 2005.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the Maoist insurgency as one of the gravest internal security threats facing India.(dpa)