Sri Lanka denies agreeing to talks with rebels

COLOMBO, Sep 13 (Reuters) The Sri Lankan government denied today having agreed to hold unconditional peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, as announced by international mediators.

''The Government of Sri Lanka is highly disturbed with regard to the statement made by the Norwegian facilitator, as the government neither agreed for unconditional talks nor was consulted,'' it said in a statement.

The country's main donors, the international community and the public ''have been misled'', the statement said.

The denial came a day after international mediators and donors announced in Brussels that Colombo and the rebels had agreed to hold unconditional peace talks, and suggested the negotiations should take place in Oslo in early October.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) pulled out of peace talks indefinitely in April and a new bout of fighting erupted in late July, killing hundreds of troops, civilians and rebels in the worst violence since a 2002 ceasefire.

''We rejoice at the announcement conveyed by both the government and LTTE to our Norwegian facilitator that they are willing to come to talks without any conditions,'' Japan's peace envoy, Yasushi Akashi, told a news briefing in Brussels yesterday.

Speaking after talks in Brussels between the co-chairs of the Sri Lanka donors' group, Akashi said the first step would be for both sides to cease military action.

The Tigers are fighting for an independent homeland for minority Tamils, saying they are discriminated against by the majority Sinhalese, who dominate the government and the army.

The government has ruled out anything beyond local autonomy.

Analysts said the Tigers' sudden decision to drop their objection to peace talks could have been a strategy to buy time after some military reverses in the past two weeks.

The army has captured rebel territory near the strategic port of Trincomalee and says it has overrun Tiger frontline positions in the Jaffna peninsula in the far north.

The Sri Lankan military described those moves as defensive in nature, but was widely seen as keen to press home its advances.

Sri Lanka's military and the Tigers have each accused the other of trying to restart a two-decade civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983 and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

More than 200,000 people have sought refuge in tented camps across the Tamil-dominated north and east in the past six weeks.

Reuters PDM VP1215