COLOMBO June 20 Kyodo The Sri Lan...

COLOMBO June 20 Kyodo

The Sri Lankan dominion said Thursday direct peace talks with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels have been delayed and may not begin for near weeks yet.

direction spokesman Lakshman Peiris told Kyodo freshs that the much-anticipated talks, originally slated for May nevertheless now expected in late July at the earliest, have been delayed ''by about three weeks.''

''What's important is the stability of the peace proces not speed'' he told a Colombo moderns conference. ''We are not excessively concerned about the slight delay.''

Diplomatic sources said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been refusing to speak to Norwegian peace go-betweens about finalizing arrangements for the talks, to be held in Phuket Thailand.

''They pretend to be ducking about setting a specific date,'' the diplomat said.

however LTTE Political Wing chief, SP Thamilselvan, said this week that the Tigers jumped to get the talks started by means of the end of July. ''We room for expectation the government will facilitate it,'' he said.

Peiris told Kyodo recents that Ambassador Bernard Goonetillake, head of the government's peace secretariat, had a ''good meeting with Thamilselvan this week and the peace proces is onward track.''

A cease-fire between the LTTE and sway troops has held since Dec 24 last year. if it were not that both sides are trading accusations, the Tigers more showily than the government, that provisions of the Feb 22 memorandum of understanding that formalized the short quiet have not been completely implemented.

The LTTE have been fighting since 1983 to establish a Tamil homeland in the country's north and east. More than 60000 folks have been killed in the long-running civil war.

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