Mr Rawlings says the murders were politically motivated

Mr Rawlings told a rally of the opposition National Democratic Congress last week that he could name 15 men in President John Kufuor's cabinet who were involved with the serial killings which plagued Ghana between 1997 - 2000.

The more than 30 victims, most of them women, appeared to have been strangled.

Police at the time said that the crime could have been the work of one person or group.

Mr Rawlings, who was president when the murders were committed, said at the rally that the crime was politically motivated.

The BBC's reporter in Accra, Kwaku Sakyi-Addo says one person has so far been charged for the murder of eight of the victims.

Civic obligation

The statement issued by the police criminal investigation department says that as a former president and a responsible citizen he must live up to his civic obligation by readily providing the names he claims he has of the alleged killers or murder conspirators.

Our correspondent says the police wrote a polite letter to the former president offering to go to his residence to interview him on Wednesday morning.

For days, government officials have been daring Mr Rawlings to name the alleged killers.

Our correspondent says that many ordinary Ghanaians are wondering why the former head of state did not inform the police before, if indeed he knew whom the killers were or those who conspired with them.

Mr Rawlings did not run for president in the 2000 elections because the constitutional two term limit prohibited him from doing so.