The leader of the Japanese Red Army, Fusako Shigenobu, has said she's disbanding the group responsible for several international attacks in the 1970s.

Miss Shigenobu, who was arrested last year after over twenty-five years on the run, said she would seek new fights within the law.

Correspondents say the Japanese Red Army was once one of the most feared guerilla groups in the world, responsible for a series of plane-hijackings and hostage-takings.

It carried out an attack on an Israeli airport in 1972 in which twenty-four people were killed, as well as the seizure of the French ambassador to the Netherlands two years later.

Miss Shigenobu is to stand trial for the French kidnapping in ten days' time.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service