A top Sri Lankan official handling the peace process with Tamil Tiger guerrillas met with his rebel counterpart here Tuesday in the first high level contact in months, officials said.
Jayantha Dhanapala, the head of the government's peace secretariat, met with S. Puleedevan in what was officially described as a "courtesy call," but official sources said the meeting was an important ice breaker.
It was the highest level meeting between the two sides since the new left-wing government of President Chandrika Kumaratunga came to power following snap elections in April.
Sri Lanka's government said on Monday it had prepared an agenda to revive stalled peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and was awaiting a response.
Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen is expected here next weekend to hold talks with Colombo and Tiger rebels amid fears that the two sides could slip back to war.
The Tigers have warned the government that its alleged backing of a breakaway Tiger leader amounted to a "proxy war" and could undermine the Oslo-brokered cease-fire which has been in place since February 2002.
They have made it clear that any future discussions with the Sri Lankan government must address the question of the military's alleged support to breakaway leader, V. Muralitharan, better known as Karuna.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's drawn out Tamil separatist conflict and four previous attempts to politically end the conflict ended up in more bloodshed.
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