Peacebroker Norway said Wednesday it had proposed Sri Lanka's international airport as a venue for talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels on saving their fragile truce, following weeks of haggling over a venue.
The Norwegian embassy said it decided on Bandaranaike International airport as a neutral venue that should be acceptable to both the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The two sides had been locked in a battle over the venue, with Colombo insisting that talks must be within Sri Lanka but outside rebel territory, while the guerrillas wanted them abroad or in their de facto capital.
"Any travel out of the country by the LTTE would have involved several hours of transit at the international airport. Hence we draw the conclusion that this venue also should be acceptable to the LTTE," the embassy said in a statement.
"The Royal Norwegian Government will shortly call a meeting of the parties at the Colombo International Airport."
President Chandrika Kumaratunga's office agreed to the venue but there was no immediate word from the rebels. Kumaratunga called for a review of the truce after it came under renewed strain following the August 12 assassination of foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. The Tigers denied killing the minister, an ardent critic of the rebels.
UN trouble-shooter Lakhdar Brahimi Wednesday wrapped up a four-day visit to Sri Lanka but said the world body had no plans to replace Norway as peacebroker.
Brahimi said his visit was triggered by a request for help from Kumaratunga to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan amid concern for the truce in an ethnic war that has killed 60,000 people over three decades.
"There is no question of that. No one has asked and we are not looking for a job," Brahimi told reporters when asked about local media reports that the UN was set to replace Norway as a peacebroker.
Kumaratunga, meanwhile, pledged to press ahead with plans to share power with minority Tamils in exchange for peace, even though her prime minister Mahinda Rajapakse promised to ditch the plan if he succeeds her in the presidential election due between October 22 and November 21.
The outgoing president disagreed with the premier, the ruling party's candidate for the presidency, about his pre-poll pledges to two hard-line Sinhalese nationalist parties to scrap plans for a federal state, a top official in her office told AFP.
"The president is not willing to throw away 11 years of work in a mere election promise," said the official on condition of anonymity. "She is committed to devolution of power and does not want the party to stop supporting it."
The prime minister's office announced that his controversial 12-point agreement with the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, will be formally signed Thursday at his official residence.
The agreement calls for the scrapping of a tsunami-aid sharing deal with Tamil Tiger rebels, redrafting the truce and abandoning a federal solution to the ethnic conflict.
The National Heritage Party of Buddhist monks said it also decided to support Rajapakse because he promised to ditch plans for a federal state.
The rebels and the government in December 2002 agreed to a federal state and to share power, but peace talks have been on hold since April 2003.
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