Sri Lankan govt says no agreement with Tigers on talks venue

The Sri Lankan government said Friday that no agreement had been reached with the Tamil Tigers on the venue for the proposed talks to review the truce agreement between the two former warring parties.

Nimal Siripala De Silva, minister of health and government spokesman, told reporters that two sides have not yet agreed on the venue for the talks.

The talks were aimed at analyzing the present status of the February 2002 accord seriously threatened by the alleged Tigers hand in the Aug. 12 assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

On Friday, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels appealed to the international community to recognize their struggle and to "exercise balance in pressurizing parties to the conflict."

In a statement issued from their headquarters in Kilinochchi in the northern province, the Tigers said, "No move of the international community should push the Tamil people to the fringe of frustration and it is all the more important to keep a people, the stakeholders intact with the peace process."

The statement accused the government of "expecting the international community to exert indiscriminate pressure on the LTTE."

Minister De Silva also said that the Norwegian peace facilitators would send Trond Furuhovde, a former head of the international truce monitors to Colombo to facilitate the proposed talks between the two parties.