Lanka seeks truce review

President Chandrika Kumaratu-nga said she was seeking new measures to fill gaps in the ceasefire agreement with rebels that went into effect in February 2002 but did not give details.

Kumaratunga held talks Thursday with Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, who went in for another round of discussions with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the rebel-held north yesterday, diplomats said.

"The president expressed the government's readiness to a 'review' of the ceasefire agreement (CFA) as proposed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and as distinct from a 'renegotiation' of the CFA," her office said in a statement.

It called for "ancillary arrangements" to remedy what she called current gaps in the ceasefire and build confidence.

A spate of killings in the island's east and the mob murder of a senior police officer in the island's north Thursday following an army slaying of a local barber have added to concerns about the truce.

LTTE political wing chief S. P. Thamilselvan said Thursday's killings in Jaffna peninusla were unfortunate and called for adherence to truce stipulations relating to the military presence in populated areas.

"He however assured that the LTTE would do the best in the restricted military controlled area to calm the situation," the LTTE said in a statement.

Thamilselvan told Helgesen that the Colombo government should act "more resolutely" to ensure normality in the island's east where the Tigers faced a split last year and have since battled a breakaway faction.

He also expressed concern that the blocking by the Supreme Court in July of a joint mechanism to deliver aid to the December 26 tsunami disaster was a blow to humanitarian work.

The LTTE has said it was no longer interested in sharing the three billions dollars of assistance pledged by foreign donors with the Sri Lankan government after the court decision announced on July 15.

The collapse of the aid deal is seen as a major setback to the peace process.

Diplomats had hoped the aid deal signed three weeks ago would become a stepping stone to resume Oslo-brokered peace talks that have been stalled since April 2003.