Lankan PM calls LTTE to end talk deadlock

COLOMBO: In a bid to end the impasse in the peace process, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has sought a meeting with Tamil Tigers to clarify a proposal to grant them some administrative and financial authority, officials said.
After hectic discussions on Sunday, the Prime Minister''s office sent a letter to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) inviting them for a discussion on breaking the impasse, an official said.
He said the premier''s office was proposing that a development oriented administrative structure offered by Wickremesinghe could be the basis for achieving the objective of the rebels set out in a letter to the prime minister.
The government was also asking the Tigers to clarify their counter proposal for an interim administrative structure, the sources said.
"The government feels that the legitimate concerns of the LTTE can be addressed by the structures proposed by the prime minister," an official involved in the process said.
"There is a lot of misunderstanding and that is something that we want to address in a fresh dialogue with the LTTE."
On Friday, the LTTE rejected greater financial authority in exchange for re-entering peace talks.
They said a fresh set of proposals sent to them last week through peace broker Norway was insufficient to revive the stalled peace bid.
The LTTE pulled out of peace talks on April 21 and since then there have been demands by the international community that the Tigers resume talks and attend a donors conference this month in Tokyo.