Sri Lanka seeks foreign pressure on Tigers

INDIA: Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told reporters in India Tuesday that foreign help is needed to pressure Tamil Tigers back to peace talks to save a fragile ceasefire.

Samaraweera, in New Delhi on a two-day visit to brief the Indian government on the faltering peace efforts, said the LTTE must bear full responsibility if the four-year peace process collapsed.

"The international community must bring pressure on the LTTE by using all powers within them to get them back to the table," Samaraweera told a press conference. "Something that hurts them the most is curtailing their fund-raising activities," he added.

On Tuesday, the LTTE met Japanese special peace envoy Yasushi Akashi and appealed him to persuade the Sri Lankan government to halt spiraling violence in the country.

The Government has similarly called on the LTTE to halt violence that threatens a ceasefire that has been in place since 2002.

The two sides last held talks on salvaging the ceasefire in Switzerland in February.

The two parties agreed to meet again on April 19, but the Tigers declined citing continued violence by alleged government-backed paramilitaries.

Despite the truce, more than 200 people, mostly civilians, have died over the past month in tit-for-tat attacks by government and the LTTE.

In the most serious attack since the truce began, a female suicide bomber killed 10 and wounded 30 others including Army Chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka at Army headquarters in Colombo on April 25.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in the separatist conflict since 1972.

NEW DELHI, Tuesday (AFP)