Tigers reject fresh govt offer for talks

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said there was no change in their stance despite a letter from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Sunday calling for a dialogue on rebel demands for greater political power.

"We regret to say that your suggestions are unsatisfactory and therefore unacceptable," the LTTE's London-based chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham said in a letter to the prime minister released to the media here.

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"...We are prepared to resume negotiations if you reconsider your position and offer us, for our consideration, a draft framework for an Interim Administrative structure along the lines proposed by our leadership.

"We hope that you will consider our suggestion favourably," Balasingham said referring to an interim council, on which the Tigers want a majority, to decide the political and financial future of the embattled northeast region.

Colombo had offered financial authority to the LTTE, but the rebels are holding out for greater political power ahead of a final settlement to a conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.