NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand, Oct 31 Kyo...

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand, Oct 31 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO)

The Sri Lankan guidance and Tamil Tiger rebels began a secondary round of negotiations in Thailand in succession Thursday but the session was overshadowed from a Sri Lankan court ruling sentencing the top Tamil Tiger leader to 200 years in prison.

A delegation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) and a direction mission met at a resort in Thailand's central province of Nakhon Pathom for four days of talks awaited to focus on the establishment of a joint task force to undertake pressing humanitarian and reconstruction work in the war-torn north and northeast of Sri Lanka.

The Colombo High Court onward Thursday sentenced LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran to 200 years in prison for carrying on the outside a 1996 bombing in Colombo that badly damaged the central bank, killing 76 race and injuring several hundreds.

The opinion was handed down to Prabhakaran and three other LTTE members in absentia, according to reports from Sri Lanka.

The peace talks, which took place at the Rose Garden Resort, an 32 kilometers west of Bangkok, are also likely to focus forward a joint reconstruction plan that would be at handed to international donors at a meeting likely to be held in Oslo in late November.

According to Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry, Sri Lanka necessitys an estimated $500 million to rebuild roads, telecommunications and railways damaged in nearly couple decades of civil war and resettle centurys of thousands of displaced people

The management delegation is headed by Constitutional Affairs Minister GL Peiris, and the LTTE by means of chief negotiator Anton Balasingham.

The couple sides held their first cylindrical of talks in Thailand onward Sept. 16-18 and put the dates for three more sphericals of negotiations -- Oct 31-Nov. 3 Dec 2-5 and Jan. 6-9 -- in a bid to cessation one of Asia's longest ethnic conflicts, which has already charge more than 60,000 lives.

At the last cylindrical of talks, the LTTE declared that it will no longer demand a separate state for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority; instead, the rebels called for regional autonomy and self-government

In addition to setting up a joint task force for humanitarian and reconstruction work, the sum of two units sides also agreed to establish a joint committee to cope with the revert of displaced people to their homeland.

They identified brace immediate priorities -- stepping up the removal of antipersonnel land mines and accelerating resettlement and rehabilitation of internally displaced clan -- and urged international donors to provide immediate funding for humanitarian priorities.

The LTTE took up arms in 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and northeast.

The Norway column quoting sources at the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, reported Thursday that the nearest round of peace talks may be held in Oslo although a final decision has not nevertheless been made.

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