Tamil Tiger rebels give ultimatum

The Tamil Tiger leader says his people have lost patience

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have issued an ultimatum to the new government to come up with a political settlement within the next year.

Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran said the Tamil people had "lost patience [and] hope".

"This is our final appeal," he said, threatening to "intensify the [rebel] struggle for self government" in 2006 if no plan was advanced.

Sri Lanka's new president has demanded a review of the truce with the rebels.

Mahinda Rajapakse has said a solution to the long-running conflict would be found in a unitary state - rejecting Tigers' demand for an independent homeland.

Our people have lost patience, hope and reached the brink of utter frustration Velupillai Prabhakaran

"In terms of policy, the distance between him [Mr Rajapakse] and us is vast," Mr Prabhakaran said in an annual speech to mark the rebels' war dead.

'Urgent appeal'

He said since the new president "is considered to be a realist.. we wish to find out, first of all, how he is going to handle the peace process".

Mr Prabhakaran said the government of Mr Rajapakse should put forward a "reasonable political framework that will satisfy the political aspirations of the Tamil people" soon.

"If the new government rejects our urgent appeal, we will, next year, in solidarity with our people, intensify our struggle for self determination, our struggle for national liberation to establish self-government in our homeland," he said.

The conflict has lasted for 20 years

"Our people have lost patience, hope and reached the brink of utter frustration. They are not prepared to be tolerant any longer."

The Tamil Tiger leader said the last four years of peace process had "miserably failed to address to most urgent humanitarian needs faced by hundreds of thousands of Tamil refugees displaced by war and by the recent tsunami".

Mr Prabhakaran said the rebels had decided to resume a "liberation struggle" last year and were "charting our action plan" when the tsunami struck the island and killed thousands of people along the eastern coast.

"In these circumstances, our liberation movement was geared to confront the crisis," he said.

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

The 2002 truce brokered by Norway ended more than 20 years of civil war which has killed more than 60,000 people.

But negotiations between the government and the rebels have been deadlocked and the truce looks increasingly fragile, correspondents say.

Mr Rajapakse has said the country needed a new peace process that would not tolerate "terrorism" - but added that he was ready for talks.

He has also dismissed a long-standing Tigers' demand for the recognition of their homeland in the northern part of the island.