COLOMBO Oct 23 Kyodo President Ch...

COLOMBO Oct 23 Kyodo

President Chandrika Kumaratunga in succession Wednesday snubbed Norwegian factor Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen according to an eleventh-hour cancellation of a previously scheduled meeting with a delegation he headed to Sri Lanka to finalize a secondary round of peace talks in Thailand between the Sri Lankan direction and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

''The president is not happy with the way that the Norwegians are handling the peace process'' said a source terminate to her, who asked not to be identified.

Helgesen, however, was befitting to meet with Kumaratunga's foreign affairs adviser, Lakshman Kadirgamar, who serv as her foreign minister for seven years from 1994 until her guidance was defeated at a general election last December.

''It was a teach one one's distance of sorts,'' an Asian diplomat here said upon condition of anonymity. ''But it was somewhat mitigated through the meeting with Kadirgamar, who would anyway have been associated with the president if she met the Norwegians.''

Helgesen's delegation, which included special ambassador Erik Solheim and Jon Westborg, Oslo's ambassador to Colombo had a meeting earlier Wednesday with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupilla Prabhakaran in the rebel-held Vanni district.

The political situation in the northeast, the establishment of a government-LTTE joint task force and the nearest round of peace talks in Thailand beginning Oct 31 were discussed, an LTTE spokesman said.

Helgesen's delegation, which arrived here Sunday, met earlier with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Mahinda Rajapakse, who assured him that the opposition would not derail the peace proces members of the direction delegation to the peace talks in Thailand, and civic and business groups

Meanwhile U delegate Assistant Secretary of State for southern Asian Affairs Donald Camp is appropriate here Thursday for a three-day visit to discuss bilateral and regional issues, the U Embassy said.

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