Sri Lanka Tiger calls rejected

Peace talks have been suspended since the Tigers pulled out in April

Sri Lanka's president has rejected calls from rebel Tamil Tigers for an interim administration in areas they control in exchange for restarting a moribund peace process.

Chandrika Kumaratunga, a rival of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, indicated that she would be prepared to sack his government if she felt it was making too many concessions to the group which is refusing to take part in a key donors' meeting next month.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have said they will only join the discussions if Mr Wickremesinghe's government responds favourably to their demands for an interim administrative council in the island's northern and eastern region, in which the rebels would have the majority stake.

The government has made no promises, but ministers are thought to be keen to break the impasse and seek a conclusive end to decades of ethnic war which has left thousands dead.

Sovereignty issues

Ms Kumaratunga said she would not consider granting any interim council to the rebels until they had signed a peace deal, decommissioned their arms and renounced both terrorism and separatism.

Establishing the Tigers as exclusive regional rulers without their first making significant concessions to the country would be tantamount to creating a separate state, she told reporters.

"I do not think you can go into a discussion with a highly organised, ruthless, one-minded organisation like the LTTE saying 'well, we'll take what comes'," she said.

"Perhaps it is that unpreparedness, the lack of professional handling of this issue that has led to this, and I hope it will not lead to anything further," she said.

The president also expressed displeasure with the Norwegians - who brokered the February 2002 ceasefire and who are currently trying to persuade the Tigers to take part in next month's talks.

Few governments, she said, would tolerate a foreign delegation advising them to "write away their sovereignty".

She noted that she had invited the Norwegians to play a role as facilitators, but not as "mediators, arbitrators or advisers".