Sattahip (Thailand): Sri Lankan delegation leader G L Peiris on September 16 said the government entered talks with Tamil Tiger representatives willing to grant an "ample degree of devolution" but ruled out a separate state demanded by the rebels.

"We stand for the ample degree of devolution. But we are for the unity and territorial integrity of the state," he said at the official ceremony marking the start of the talks.

Peiris, who is also Constitutional Affairs Minister, said, "No quick fix is feasible" in resolving Sri Lanka's protracted conflict but that the government hoped it could work towards a peaceful settlement.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels expressed confidence that peace talks will lead to a peaceful resolution of the island's long-running ethnic war.

"We are confident the talks will succeed because the principal parties in the conflict and the vast majority of the people want a resolution of the conflict," said Anton Balasingham, the head of the Tamil Tiger delegation.

Balasingham said at the opening ceremony of the talks that the situation in Sri Lanka had radically changed since the new government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe came into power in December.

He said the ceasefire arranged by peace broker Norway was holding without any serious violations and that normalcy was slowly returning to the Northern and Eastern provinces of the island.

The Tigers hoped that the international community would finance a major reconstruction and rehabilitation effort in the island's war-battered North, he said.

"Immediate steps should be undertaken for the reconstruction and rehabilitation and resettlement of the displaced people," he told the assembly.

"That task cannot be undertaken without the support of the international community that has favoured a resolution of the Tamil question."

"People expect a peace dividend," he said, explaining that the citizens of the affected areas cannot wait for a final resolution to the conflict.

Balasingham said the Tamil Tigers should play a "pivotal role" in the reconstruction effort and that the government should embrace them as "equal partners".