Japan Wednesday urged Sri Lanka's warring parties to compromise in peace talks to be revived by this summer as international donors were set to review financial support to rebuild the island.
Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, wrapped up a four-day visit here Wednesday saying he expected both the Colombo government and the Tamil Tigers to "give and take" in their negotiations.
Akashi ruled out a quick resumption of talks, held up since April last year, and said the parties needed time to reflect and prepare for negotiations on ending decades of ethnic bloodshed that has claimed 60,000 lives.
"Talks is not a matter of days or weeks," Akashi said. "It could be in the months of the summer... they want time to reflect on the contents of the negotiations and it is important to have stable and fruitful discussions."
Last week, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Sri Lanka's peace broker Norway was expected to announce dates for reopening peace talks "in a day or two," but so far nothing has materialised.
Diplomatic sources said there were hiccups on what to put on the agenda for negotiations between the Tigers and the new Colombo government, which had opposed the previous administration's handling of the peace process.
However, Akashi said President Chandrika Kumaratunga in talks with him stressed her commitment to ending the drawn out conflict. The Tigers too were committed to the process.
Akashi said Japan, Norway, the United States and the European Union will meet on June 1 in Brussels to review the peace process on releasing money from the 4.5 billion dollar aid package promised in June last year to rebuild Sri Lanka.
He could not immediately say how much of the aid pledged had actually been given to the island, but said political upheavals had slowed aid delivery since November last year.
Norway suspended its peace brooking role here in November following Kumaratunga's power struggle with the then prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe whom she accused of granting too many concessions to the Tigers.
Kumaratunga eventually sacked Wickremesinghe's government in February and held snap polls last month which her Freedom Alliance coalition narrowly won with the help of a Marxist party.