Sri Lanka donor conference to encourage resumption of peace talks

Washington, Nov 21 (UNI) The Tokyo Donor Conference on Sri Lanka, which briefly reviewed the current situation in the island nation will today discuss strategies that the international community can pursue to encourage the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE to return to negotiations.

''We will, again, be looking to see what we can do to help move that process forward and we think it's important for the people of Sri Lanka that the peace process does move forward and ultimately leads to a resolution of the longstanding situation in the country,'' Tom Casey State Department's Deputy Spokesman said yesterday.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R Nicholas Burns hosts the meeting which is attended by the United States, European Union, Norway, and Japan. Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard Boucher, European Commission Director General for External Relations Herve Jouanjean, Norwegian Minister of International Development, Erik Solheim, and Japanese Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi were present.

The Co-Chairs are the sole international mechanism focused on the peace process in Sri Lanka and meet on a regular basis. Their last meeting was held in Brussels on September 12.

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