MUMBAI A woman serving a life sentence in connection with the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi has ended a hunger strike after winning a parole review, a report said Wednesday.

Nalini Sriharan began refusing food at a prison in southern Tamil Nadu state on Monday, claiming that she had been eligible for early release since 2005, AFP reported.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the prison authorities had persuaded her to stop the protest and that her plea for parole would be considered.

Sriharan and her husband, Murugan, were among four people sentenced to death in connection with the murder of Rajiv Gandhi at an election rally in 1991. Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2000.

The Indian government has blamed the suicide bomb attack, which killed at least 14 people, including the bomber, on Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sriharan was convicted for being part of the conspiracy to murder.

She filed a petition in the Madras High Court earlier this month, stating that she was required to serve only 14 years in prison and that she completed the term in mid-2005.

She also asked for a panel to be set up to review her case.

Sriharan, now in her 50s, has previously said that she now regrets Gandhi's assassination and has met the former premier's daughter, Priyanka, in jail.