Norway opens peace talks with Tigers

Norwegian mediator Erik Solheim began discussions with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the guerrilla-held northern Wanni region in a fresh bid to restart peace talks, officials said.

Solheim's visit comes on the eve of the third anniversary Wednesday of the Oslo-arranged ceasefire between the government and the rebels. The truce came under renewed pressure earlier this month after the slaying of a top rebel regional leader.

The Scandinavian truce monitoring team known as the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said the lack of peace talks since April 2003 was a serious risk.

"Lack of peace talks is putting a serious strain on the ceasefire and creating dangerous uncertainty," SLMM chief Hargrup Haukland said, adding that killings could seriously jeopardise the process.

The Sri Lankan government too said that the killing of Tiger eastern political chief E. Koushalyan, and five other rebels two weeks ago endangered the ceasefire that went into effect on February 23, 2002.

Diplomats said although there was little hope of ending the talks impasse, they were hopeful of an agreement between Colombo and the Tigers on tsunami relief.

Negotiations were still under way to establish a joint mechanism to disburse millions of dollars worth of foreign aid for the survivors of the December 26 tsunamis that killed nearly 31,000 people in Sri Lanka and initially left a million homeless. Solheim is making his second visit to Sri Lanka since the disaster. Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen last month met Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran to try to resolve the aid delivery issue.