Colombo: Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe left for Oslo on November 23 to seek global support for the Sri Lankan peace process even as the government and the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) issued their first-ever joint appeal for international aid to reconstruct the war-torn country.

The Prime Minister is accompanied by a 17-member delegation that will be joined in Oslo at `Peace Support Meeting' on November 25 by representatives of the Tamil rebels as well as around 20 countries including the US and the UK.

The Sri Lankan government's aim at the meeting would be to garner political support for the peace process as well as to convert international backing into seed money for getting humanitarian projects going.

Money is needed for sprucing up the basic infrastructure like roads, drainage systems, hospitals and houses for the hundreds of displaced people who are expected to return to the trouble-torn north and east regions.

Meanwhile, the government and the LTTE released a joint appeal through the Norwegian embassy in Colombo, two days ahead of the Peace Support Meeting in Oslo, in which they asked for global aid as well as committed themselves to transparency in using the funds and respect for human rights and ethnic plurality.

The joint sub-committee on Immediate Humanitarian and Rehabilitation Needs, which has four representatives from each side, outlined its functions, priorities and requirements in the appeal, which was accompanied by a set of `guiding principles' for implementation.

PTI