India concerned at failure of Lanka-LTTE meet

New Delhi, June 9: India today expressed ''deep concerns'' over the failure of the proposed meeting between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE, aimed at strengthening the role of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and ensuring the security of its members, and hoped that the dialogue process would resume at the earliest to avoid any further worsening of the situation.

''It remains our conviction that the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka must be resolved through peaceful dialogue and, in this context, any weakening of the role of the SLMM is likely to have adverse consequences,'' an official statement said.

It said India had supported the role of the monitoring mission and believed that it had made a significant contribution to the maintenance of the ceasefire and in preventing and limiting the violations of the ceasefire, which had, unfortunately, become more frequent in the recent past.

The statement said the Indian government appreciated the willingness of the Sri Lankan government to engage in the talks in Oslo facilitated by Norway.

UNI