LTTE can be made stakeholder in the peace talks: Sri Lanka

New Delhi, Apr 2 (UNI) Sri Lanka today offered to make LTTE a stakeholder in the stalled peace talks and appealed to SAARC and the international community to force the terrorist outfit to come to the negotiating table by choking the channels of funds and arms supply.

Maintaining that the ceasefire was still in place despite repeated attacks by the LTTE, including the first aerial attack on its Air Force base recently, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohita Bogollagama said his government did not treat such incidents as ''war.'' ''This is more of terrorism than war'' though the LTTE had been announcing quite often that it was launching the next stage of its Eelam war, he said.

''We need international support to isolate the LTTE'' and force it resume the peace talks with the government, he said.

Rejecting suggestions that there were differences between Sri Lanka and India on dealing with the LTTE, he said both the governments were of one mind in dealing with terrorism -- taking counter-terror measures and at the same time seeking to find a negotiated settlement.

On the efforts to find a solution through talks, he said the government was ready to make as stakeholders in the dialogue process all those who represented the people or ''claimed to represent'' them.

In this connection, the government would come out by mid-April with a proposal of a new Constitution on the basis of talks held with various political parties.

Asked whether it would be a federal or a unitary structure, he said it was the content, not the label, which mattered.

On the killing of five Tamil fishermen on the high seas, he said the incident had taken place within the jurisdiction of the Indian Coast Guards and as such the firing could not have been opened by Sri Lankan sailors. This had been accepted by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, he said.

He said it was clear that the LTTE was involved in the killings to drive a wedge between the two nations.

In order to prevent such incidents, Sri Lanka had suggested coordinated patrolling of the Indian Ocean and the Palk Straits which was under the consideration of India. He had reiterated the suggestion in his meeting with his counterpart Pranab Mukherjee.

UNI