Sri Lankan president for direct deal with Tigers

President Mahinda Rajapakse contacted the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) through a Tamil-language newspaper editor, the pro-opposition paper Sunday Leader reported, saying that he had asked for a two-week truce with the rebels.

"Both the LTTE and the army are preparing for war and the people and I are caught in the middle. We don't have to work through Norway, why don't we deal directly?" the president was quoted as saying by the paper.

There was no immediate comment from Rajapakse's office, but official sources said the president had made contact with a Tamil newspaper editor last week in a bid to halt the daily death toll reported from embattled regions.

Rajapakse's reported peace bid comes amid an upsurge in violence that has seen more than 800 people killed since December and threatens to derail a ceasefire signed in 2002.

Scandinavians monitoring the truce have said that the ceasefire, signed in 2002, is only on paper.

Norway, which has failed to bring the two sides together for talks, is expected to meet Thursday with other truce observers to decide the future of a ceasefire monitoring mission, known by its acronym SLMM.

The Tigers have thrown the SLMM into crisis by demanding the removal of monitors from European Union nations Finland, Denmark and Sweden after the EU branded the Tigers a terrorist group last month.

Part of Rajapakse's offer, according to the reports, is a pledge to contain a renegade rebel commander in the island's east, V. Muralitharan, who is better known as Colonel Karuna.