SANTA ANA — It was shortly after 1 p.m. Saturday when young men started spilling into Delhi Park, jumping over the wire fence, strolling across the play lot toward the basketball court where another group of young men were playing.

They were members of different gangs, but the park, usually considered Delhi Aces turf, was treated as neutral territory for a day.

"The word's been around that they're trying to stop violence," said a trim, dark-haired young man who spoke for the Little Brook gang. "You can't make everybody listen. But we're willing to give it a shot. It's better than killing each other, like it's been."

Within two hours, almost 200 young men, representing eight different gangs from Santa Ana, Westminster and Orange, had converged. Since January, gang members have been meeting weekly to face each other and to speak out against drive-by shootings that injure innocent people along with gang combatants.

The first meeting drew only three gangs--the Delhi Aces, F-Troop and Santa Anita--but each week, the numbers have been growing.

"These drive-by shootings, there are too many of them," said Hooks, 27, an F-Troop member who has a ring of barbed wired tattooed around his neck. "I've been in the neighborhood 15 years. I've lost too many friends. I can't keep count."

According to several of the young men, the idea for the meetings started among rival gang members in prison who became friends and were concerned about their families and relatives outside. News of the meetings spread through those who were released from prison and through young women who sometimes dated men from different gangs.

The gang members gathered Saturday had short, trim haircuts and were dressed in white shirts or plain sweat shirts, with jeans or khaki pants. Most of them were in their late teens and 20s, but some were as young as 14.

Tattoos covered many of their arms, necks and chests--elaborate drawings of pin-up girls, gang insignias and the names of sweethearts. As they approached their own gangs, they paid respect to the senior members, shaking their hands, then tapping their fists.

They huddled in distinct groups, along the basketball court, beside the baseball field or on the grass. The only place members from different gangs intermingled was on the handball court.

One player, who belonged to F-Troop, wore a sweat shirt with the words "In Memory of Ernesto and Sammy," in honor of Ernesto Sanudo Mendez and Sammy Porras, two Santa Ana men who were gunned down by passing gunfire in El Salvador Park last weekend.