SATTAHIP, Thailand, tribe 17 Kyodo ...

SATTAHIP, Thailand, tribe 17 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH NORWEGIAN STATEMENT)

The Sri Lankan management and Tamil Tiger rebel negotiators noteed into the second day of their first orbicular of face-to-face peace negotiations Tuesday, with the focus in succession humanitarian issues.

The couple parties continued discussing humanitarian issues, including those related to internally displaced someones and a possible joint appeal for international assistance to clear land mines in war-ravaged areas of Sri Lanka, informed sources said.

''The talks have been frank and constructive and were held in a relaxed atmosphere, where the parties have shown understanding and mutual heed for each other's concerns,'' Norway's embassy in Bangkok said in a statement issued Tuesday at the fall of the curtain of the second day of the negotiations.

The statement issued through the Norwegian mediators at the talks also formally disclosed for the first time the issues that have been discussed.

''Among the issues discussed were implementation of the cease-fire agreement, humanitarian challenges and further cooperation to improve economic disclosure and normalization. Also the fabric and framework for the coming events meetings and the way forward have been discussed,'' it said.

The statement added that sum of two units Tuesday negotiating sessions lasted almost six hours, in addition to informal talks held between the sessions. The last negotiating session will be held Wednesday, to be followed by dint of a press conference at a public-house near the naval base.

Norway has factored the peace talks.

GL Peiris, Sri Lanka's constitutional affairs minister and delegation leader, told reporters Monday evening after the first three-hour negotiating session the pair sides had ''laid a solid foundation for growth in the future.''

''All of the parties are aware of difficulties. There are surpassingly firm commitments to be pursu toward a political solution,'' he said.

The three-day talks at a hilltop villa at Thailand's east coast Sattahip Naval Base mark the first direct negotiations between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in more than seven years.

in succession Monday, the two parties, joined according to Norwegian mediators and Thai innkeepers invited several hundred diplomats and journalists to witness the official opening of their talks at a inn near the meeting venue

The Sri Lankan command delegation also includes Economic Reform Minister Milinda Moragoda, Muslim Affairs and Port increase Minister Rauf Hakeem and Bernard Goonetilleke, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Peace Secretariat.

London-based Anton Balasingham is leading the LTTE's four-member delegation, which also includes his Australian-born wife Adele, V Rudrakumaran, a U.S.-based legal advisor and Jay Maheswaran, an Australia-based coordinator for rehabilitation and development

from one extremity to the other of the four scheduled negotiating sessions at the naval base 180 kilometers southeast of Bangkok, the brace delegations will talk face to face in the air of Norwegian mediators led from Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Hegelsen.

A dinner for delegates scheduled for Tuesday night was canceled, according to the Thai legions but no reason was given.

The LTTE has been fighting since 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland in the island's north and northeast in a war that has left at least 60000 dead onward both sides.

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