Sri Lanka rebuffs rebels' demands

The Tigers pulled out of direct talks in April last year

Sri Lanka's government has rejected demands from Tamil Tiger rebels to unconditionally resume peace talks.

The rebels threatened at the weekend to return to military action unless discussions based on their blueprint for self-rule began again.

But the government says any talks must take place alongside negotiations for a final political solution to the decades-old conflict.

Talks to resolve the conflict stalled some 19 months ago.

The Tigers want their interim proposals discussed and implemented before talks on a final solution begin.

The government says the two must go in tandem, and that it is impossible to have an interim process without knowing where it is leading.

'Freedom struggle'

The government has rejected the rebel demands but says it remains committed to discussing their proposals for an interim self-governing authority in areas they control.

It said in a statement on Wednesday: "Threats won't help start peace talks.

"A call, couched in threatening language, from the [Tamil Tigers] for a resumption of negotiations without conditions, while setting conditions itself by insisting unilaterally on a single agenda item is scarcely conducive to good-faith negotiations."

The announcement was the government's first reaction to a statement issued by Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran on Saturday.

He warned the Tigers may resume what he called the freedom struggle of the Tamil people if there was any further delay to peace talks.

Negotiations

During an annual radio broadcast to mark the rebels' war dead, he said they had "reached the limits of patience".

A ceasefire between the two sides has remained largely intact since February 2002, even though the Tigers pulled out of negotiations in April last year, saying the government was not honouring pledges it had made.

The Tigers have been fighting for more than two decades for self-government in the north and east, which they consider the Tamil homeland.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in the course of the conflict.

The rebels' proposal calls for a largely independent territory with control over its own administration, police and legal system, unrestricted access to the sea, and the right to collect taxes and receive direct foreign aid.