LTTE needs to act responsibly in peace process: Bogallagama

New Delhi, Feb 1 (UNI) New Lankan Foreign Minister Rohita Bogallagama wants the LTTE to act with responsibility so that it can be a ''stakeholder'' in the peace process to resolve the decades-old ethnic problem in the island nation.

''The Government is looking at the LTTE as a stakeholder in the peace process. If it is using terror as a way to achieve its goal (separate State), then Colombo will never tolerate it,'' Mr Bogallagama told reporters here last evening.

The Lankan Foreign Minister, who earlier met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, said he did not discuss enhanced military assistance from the Indian side to counter the LTTE. However, he emphasised his government's determination to eliminate terrorism.

''We are seeking a negotiated settlement of the ethnic problem by peaceful means and the Rajpakse government is working twoards achieving this goal,'' he said.

On the latest political developments in Colombo, when some 19 opposition United National Party (UNP) members of Parliment joined the ruling party, he said, ''A Southern Consensus had emerged which is a signal to the LTTE. The government, which was in a minority, can now initiate a 'legitimate constitutional process' and our efforts to negotiate with the LTTE are on.'' Replying to a query on violation of the MoU signed between the ruling SLFP and opposition UNP in October last year, he said it had not been violated by admitting the UNP members. ''There is no bar in the MoU on crossover of MPs,'' he said.

Mr Bogallagama, who also represented the government at the two rounds of peace talks with the LTTE in Geneva last year, further questioned the motive of the LTTE during the peace parleys and said that he was at loss to understand what the outfit was going to represent at the peace talks - Terror or peace. ''Despite all odds, the government participated in two rounds of talks in Geneva,'' he added.

Mr Bogallagama was made the island nation's foreign minister on last Sunday, in a cabinet reshuffle undertaken by President Mahinda Rajajpakse.

UNI