LTTE agrees to resume peace talks

Colombo: A top Sri Lankan official on Wednesday claimed that the elusive leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has given the necessary ‘commitment’ to resume talks with the Sri Lankan government.

''We are not prepared to play any more games. We need concrete, positive commitment from leader of the LTTE Prabhakaran to resume talks,'' Sri Lanka's Minister of Policy Planning and spokesman on defence matters, Keheliya Rambukwella said in Colombo.

The Minister's remarks have come after Norwegian Ambassador Hans Brattskar's meeting with LTTE's political wing head S P Thamilselvan last week.

According to Rambukwella, the Norwegian Ambassador, who went to the rebel-held Kilinochchi last week carrying the government concerns, had come back with certain positive suggestions on the resumption of talks.

''The President will look into them within two or three days and will take a decision,'' the Minister said, adding the government needed to clarify certain matters in this regard.

Asked whether the rebel leader had given the 'commitment' in writing, the Minister said it was given in a different form.

"Prabhakaran had given it in a different form, which I will tell you after discussion with the President," Rambukwella said.

The fresh development in the peace front is taking place notably after Sri Lanka's donor co-chairs, who met in Brussels on September 12 to review the deteriorating security situation, announced at the end of the meeting that the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels had agreed for ''unconditional talks'' early next month in Oslo.

Welcoming the parties' willingness to resume talks unconditionally, the four Co-chairs, comprising the US, Japan, the EU and Norway, in a joint-statement urged the two parties to cease all violence immediately.

''The parties should use this opportunity to show maximum flexibility regarding the arrangements to be proposed by the facilitator. The meeting should take place urgently in Oslo early October, to be agreed to by the two parties,'' the statement said, adding the Co-chairs would meet at the end of next month to review the progress of the proposed talks.