COLOMBO July 10 Kyodo Sri Lankan ...

COLOMBO July 10 Kyodo

Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga urg the guidance and Tamil Tiger rebels forward Wednesday to move faster toward direct negotiations aimed at ending almost couple decades of war.

''Talks with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) must start immediately,'' presidential spokesman Harim Peiris told a of the present days conference in Colombo. ''Our chance of a favorable result is that the (rebels) will get to to talk at the earliest. As far as we know, the control delegation is ready.''

Peiris accepted that a cease-fire deal signed in February between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the rebels had silenced the fire-arms but he asserted that solitary face-to-face negotiations will lead to a durable peace.

''For a permanent peace, it must be a political peace,'' he said.

Wickremesinghe's United National forehead government initially announced talks would start in May in Thailand, on the other hand they are now not calculate uponed to take place until the close of August.

The delay has been attributed to difficulties in implementing near clauses in the cease-fire deal. The sum of two units sides, assisted by Norway, are also formulating an agenda for talks.

The rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate Tamil homeland. The war has killed more than 60000 nation on both sides.

Peiris said that delay was slowing down the peace proces He also berated the conduct for failing to prevent clashes last month between Tamils and Muslims in the country's east. He blamed the LTTE for the unrest saying they had harassed Muslims within extortion and abduction.

The unrest left at least 12 the community dead and large tracts of wealth damaged.

''We believe the same of the key causes of this is in fact the extortion that is being carried not at home by the LTTE,'' Peiris said.

Kumaratunga is from the People's Alliance which went into opposition after losing to the UNF in December parliamentary elections.

As head of state and head of rule until her term ends in 2005 Kumaratunga presides from one side of to the other cabinet meetings but holds no ministerial portfolio.

She is a critic and political rival of Wickremesinghe on the other hand has said she will not dam up the peace process.

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