Tigers call for immediate truce talks

Tamil Tiger political chief S.P. Thamilselvan said the rebel group was ready "even in the next minute" to begin talks with the government.

The truce agreed in 2002 has come under fresh strains since the assassination of the country's foreign minister's last month in an attack blamed by the government on Tamil rebels.

"We are anxious to start the talks immediately... even in the next minute," Thamilselvan said in an interview at his political headquarters, 330km north of the capital Colombo, on Friday night.

Peacebroker Norway has sought talks between the two sides in the wake of the assassination of foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, which has stoked fears of a return to civil war in the Indian Ocean island nation.

Thamilselvan denied that the Tigers carried out the August 12 murder of Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil who was a fierce critic of the rebels, saying they had "nothing to gain by killing anyone."