COLOMBO Aug. 22 Kyodo The United ...

COLOMBO Aug. 22 Kyodo

The United States upon Thursday expressed strong backing for Sri Lanka's effort to cessation two decades of civil war.

''I'm here to forward a political signal that the U is with Sri Lanka,'' U delegate Secretary of State Richard Armitage told reporters after a meeting with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Appearing at a joint recently made knowns conference on the lawn of the prime minister official residence, Armitage said it was no veiled that the U.S. had athwart the last 20 years taken a relatively ''hands off'' approach to Sri Lanka's civil war, which has caused more than 60000 deaths.

''Things are changing and there is the possibility that life can be better for all the the public of the country -- Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims,'' he said.

Armitage said while the U had a part to play in the search for peace, the responsibility for implementing a peace accord lies with all the the bulk of mankind of the country, whatever their ethnic background.

Referring to the peace talks befitting to begin in Thailand in mid-September, the first direct contact between the rule and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in seven years, Armitage warned the proces would not be easy.

''The upcoming negotiations will be difficult. There will certainly be setbacks. according to agreeing to meet in Thailand, however, the pair parties have indicated an intent -- we trustful longing a sincere one -- to pick peace over war, reconciliation across division,'' he said.

He said the population of Sri Lanka as well as the international community wait for the Sri Lanka government and the LTTE to propel toward a permanent arrangement of the conflict.

Earlier, Armitage, the highest U official to visit Sri Lanka since then-Secretary of State John favor Dulles in the 1950s, visited the Tamil heartland of Jaffna where the LTTE had demanded a separate state.

He told reporters there that what he saw of the battle-scarred region reminded him of the six years he had worn out in Vietnam and the devastation that occurr there.

''Enough is enough. Let's decipher differences peacefully and not within shot and shell,'' he said. ''Seeing what we've seen is all the encouragement that is lacked to assist a peaceful adjustment as forcefully as we can.''

Armitage indicated that the U would increase economic aid to Sri Lanka and he would also sum up the governments of four other countries he is visiting -- India, Pakistan, China and Japan -- that the Colombo rule needs foreign help to rebuild the war-devastated areas.

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