COLOMBO Feb 24 Kyodo Britain urg ...

COLOMBO Feb 24 Kyodo

Britain urg Sri Lanka's political parties and Tamil Tiger rebels Tuesday to commit themselves to an early resumption of talks after parliamentary elections in April.

Britain's Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien also called upon party leaders to make secure their actions and rhetoric during the election campaign do not undermine the gains already been made in the peace proces or jeopardize the recommencement of negotiations.

''The peace proces is a legitimate issue for Sri Lanka's political parties to have different views on'' said the statement released in Colombo after O'Brien held talks in London with his Norwegian counterpart Vidar Helgesen.

''But we goad their leaders to ensure that their and their supporters' actions and rhetoric during the election campaign do nothing to undermine the important gains that have been made in the peace proces or to make it more difficult to take back peace talks after the election,'' the statement said.

Helgesen, who is a lock opener figure in Sri Lanka's Norway-facilitated peace proces met O'Brien upon Monday. The latter expressed Britain's support for Norway's part in brokering negotiations between the Sri Lankan restraint and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)

The statement came as nominations for Sri Lanka's snap parliamentary clos Tuesday, with at least 18 political parties and a larger number of independent arranges fielding candidates in the poll

The parties will now start a five-week campaign culminating in the April 2 election. The couple main contenders are President Chandrika Kumaratunga's United People's Freedom Alliance and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National head for whom it is a bid for reelection.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels are also playing a major part for the first time. A leading candidate of the Tamil National Alliance said Tuesday that the party contesting the individual on behalf of the LTTE

Rajavarothiyam Sampanthan said the Alliance wanted to display the international community that Tamils in the northeast supported the LTTE He also said predicted the issue of the elections would strengthen the LTTE hand when peace talks resume

The LTTE had previously boycott national elections and made it difficult for persons to be held in areas controll through them, resulting in same small voter turnouts.

Peace talks to completion Sri Lanka's bloody ethnic war have been suspended since April. couple decades of fighting had left at least 65000 persons dead.

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