Lanka may offer limited autonomy to Tigers

The prime ministers of Norway and Sri Lanka held talks on the sidelines of the Olympic games in Athens Saturday on reviving peace talks stalled since April 2003, the Norwegian embassy here said in a weekend statement.

Sri Lankan Premier Mahinda Rajapakse met with his Norwegian counterpart, Kjell Magne Bondevik, Saturday and had a "constructive discussion" and expressed hopes peace talks would resume soon.

"Rajapakse and Bondevik both expressed hope the direct talks would soon be resumed after a 16-month long stalemate," the statement said.

Official sources said Norway's deputy foreign minister, Vidar Helgesen, was expected here later this month to carry a set of fresh proposals from Colombo to the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Helgesen's latest visit here last month ended without a breakthrough and he warned before leaving the island the parties must do more to revive peace negotiations and stop the island slipping back to war.

Government officials here said President Chandrika Kumaratunga was in the process of finalising a counter-proposal to the Tamil Tiger blueprint for self-rule unveiled last October.

The Tigers have insisted the talks, suspended by them in April 2003, can resume based only on their proposal for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) giving them regional autonomy.

Press reports here Sunday quoted the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan as saying they were sticking to their demands for implementation of the proposal.

"We need to first institutionalise the ISGA," he was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times newspaper here. "While it is in operation, we can talk about a final solution."

The peace process is officially held up due to differences over an agenda for re-starting talks, but diplomats say an unprecedented split among the rebels could be the real reason.

Norway has described the escalation of violence following the split in the Tamil Tiger movement as the most dangerous since a ceasefire came into effect in February 2002.

Regional Tiger commander V. Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, led the split in March. Five weeks later, he escaped an onslaught and went underground after disbanding up to 6,000 fighters under him in the island's troubled east.