Farwell with LTTE leader 

Welcome at entrance by Anton Balasingham 

European envoy 

During the Peace meeting  

Pleasure moment 

The top level peace meeting between Norwargian envoy and rebel leaders 

Eric Sholhiem with Prabakaran 

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels agree to peace talks in Switzerland

Tamil Tiger rebels on Wednesday agreed to hold face-to-face talks with the Sri Lanka government in Switzerland, breaking an almost three year deadlock, officials said.

The agreement was reached after talks between Norway's top peace envoy Erik Solheim and Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, in the northern rebel-capital of Kilinochchi, officials involved in the talks said.

Solheim is scheduled to meet Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse on his return to Colombo.

The government will agree to the destination, senior presidential sources s aid. Talks are likely to start next month, they said.

Colombo had indicated to Solheim that it was willing to move away from its earlier insistence of an Asian destination and hold negotiations in any destination other than the Norwegian capital Oslo. The 25 European Union nations in which the rebels have been slapped with travel restrictions was also ruled out. The Tigers had earlier continued to insist that talks must be held nowhere else other than Oslo.

Norwegian envoy holding crucial talks with guerrilla leader to save Sri Lanka cease-fire

Norwegian envoy Eric Solheim arrived in northern Sri Lanka - for crucial talks with the reclusive leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels Wednesday, amid fears the island could return to civil war after four years of relative calm.

Solheim was meeting Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in the rebel-held city of Kilinochchi and was expected to deliver a message from President Mahinda Rajapakse. The meeting could help decide whether Sri Lanka - can hold onto the 2002 cease-fire despite increasing violence.

In the latest of a series of attacks blamed on the rebels, a police officer was wounded when a grenade was thrown at a security bunker in the northern town of Vavuniya early Wednesday, the Media Unit of the Defense Ministry said.

Police on Wednesday were also searching for those responsible for a series of explosions in the Sri Lankan capital that caused widespread panic but no known casualties, Deputy Inspector General of Police P. Jayasundara said.

Separately, unidentified gunmen shot and killed two people, believed to be rebel supporters, in the Tamil city of Jaffna, about 40 kilometers (25 mile) south of Kilinochchi on Wednesday, a police officer said.

About 81 government security personnel have been killed in attacks by suspected Tamil Tigers since Dec. 4. The rebels deny involvement. Another 40 civilians have been killed by unidentified assailants, with the government and the rebels blaming each other for the killings.

Solheim played a key role in arranging the cease-fire, halting nearly two decades of civil war that killed 65,000 people from both sides. Subsequent peace talks broke down in April 2003 when the Tigers withdrew demanding more autonomy for the Tamil-majority north and east.

Both the government and the Tigers have said that they are willing to resume talks aimed at proper implementation of the cease-fire to end the violence.

However, disagreement over the venue and the agenda have delayed the resumption of talks. The Tigers want the talks to be in Oslo, Norway, but the allies in Rajapakse's government are against it. But Rajapakse told Solheim that he would not be rigid on the venue.

The rebels want the government to disarm armed groups opposed to the rebels first and then meet. The government, in turn, says the Tigers should stop attacking government forces first.

The rebels have fought the government since 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils accusing majority Sinhalese of discrimination.