US asks EU to ban LTTE

"We have encouraged the EU to list the LTTE" as a terrorist group, US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Camp said at the end of his two-day visit.

"We think the LTTE is very deserving of that label. We think it will help cut off financial supplies and weapons procurement and the like."

Violence between the government and the rebels has surged in the past month with more than 200 people killed despite a four-year truce in an ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.

The US banned the LTTE in October 1997, five years after India proscribed the LTTE after accusing the guerrillas of involvement in the assassination of former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi.

Britain banned the Tigers in February 2001 while the EU in October slapped travel restrictions on them after holding the LTTE responsible for the August 2005 assassination of Sri Lankan foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

However, Camp said that Washington would continue to encourage the government and the Tigers to resume peace negotiations which were put on hold in April 2003 after six rounds of face-to-face talks begun in September 2002.

"The trend lines are discouraging in terms of the increasing provocations by the LTTE, the fact that killings are increasing, all of these suggest that Sri Lanka is not on the way back to a lasting ceasefire, Camp told reporters.

"We would like to do everything we can, as an outside party, to encourage a return to the peace process" Cam added, and said that Sri Lanka can count on the "moral support" of the United States.

But he also noted that the government must also address complaints of violence by the LTTE, which controls swathes of territory in the northeast.

"Certainly, the LTTE is a terrorist group of the first order. That said, there's no question that the government of Sri Lanka has responsibilities as well.

"One of those, which the government has certainly acknowledged, is to address the legitimate grievances of the Tamil people. That includes, of course, dealing with the disturbing number of killings in recent months," he said.