SAPOA, Nicaragua (AP)—Fresh from signing their unexpected peace agreement in this border outpost last week, Sandinista and Contra negotiators gathered here Monday to work out details for a 60-day cease-fire.

Negotiators aimed to determine the areas where rebel fighters will gather during the cease-fire, outlined in the accord signed Wednesday night.

The delegation from the leftist government, led by Maj. Gen. Joaquin Cuadra, deputy defense minister and chief of staff of the Sandinista army, arrived first.

The Contra rebel negotiators were to be led by Aristides Sanchez, one of the directors of the umbrella Nicaraguan Resistance. The delegation, including regional commanders from key combat zones, was delayed by travel difficulties and had not arrived by early afternoon.

The peace agreement calls for a 60-day cease-fire beginning April 1. Further high-level negotiations are tentatively scheduled for April 6 in Managua, the capital, to reach a more permanent truce.

Monday’s session also could address the issue of when the US-supported rebels must lay down their arms.

On Sunday, the leftist Sandinista government fulfilled the first part of the cease-fire accord by freeing 100 political prisoners under an amnesty program. Most of them were accused of activities linked to the Contra rebels.

Afterward, Interior Minister Tomas Ohrge called the amnesty “possibly the beginning of the end of the (6-year-old) war,” and he called on the Contras to release Nicaraguan peasants its troops had kidnapped.

After celebrating Palm Sunday Mass, Roman Catholic Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo called the prisoner release “very positive.”

During his homily, the Managua archbishop warned the cease-fire agreeement did not mean that “we have already reached peace.”

“Let us not make a mistake. Let us not confuse ourselves. They have only signed a cease-fire,” he said, emphasizing the point by repeating the last sentence three times.

Under the Sapoa agreement, rebel forces are to gather without interference from Sandinista forces in specified zones inside Nicaraguua during the first two weeks of April. Monday’s talks between special commissions of the two sides could be extended and were to define “the location, size and modus opurandi” of those zones, according to the text of the Sapoa accord.

Nothing is said in the Sapoa agreement about the Contras laying down their arms, and that could be taken up as well. In past talks, the rebels insisted on keeping their weapons until all provisions of an accord were carried out.

Once rebel fighters have moved into the truce zones, the Contra leadership can send up to eight delegates to participate in the first national reconciliation talks on April 6.

Last week’s pact provides a gradual amnesty for Nicaragua’s 3,300 political prisoners; guarantees freedom of expresson, which the rebels had demanded; and permits all exiles to return home and participate in the political process.