Colombo: Sri Lanka's peace talks enter their fifth round in Berlin on February 7 with the focus shifting to human rights issues and foreign pressure mounting on Tamil rebels to stop recruiting child soldiers.

The talks are to take up fundamental rights that will not only be part of a final peace deal, but also form the basis for continuing the peace process, Sri Lanka's chief negotiator, G L Peiris, said here before leaving for Berlin on February 5.

The United Nations Children's Fund officials are also going to Berlin to open parallel talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) on the question of their "baby brigades" and assurances to end the practice of child conscription.

UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy, who visited Sri Lanka last week for talks on children affected by the drawn out armed conflict in the island, underlined that there can be no peace unless children were protected.

"You are not going to have peace unless you invest in children," Bellamy told reporters after talks with Tigers and government authorities.

"We don't believe you can have peace unless you involve children in the process."

She said the UNICEF was working on an "action plan" to help child soldiers go back to their families and schools.

A written commitment from the Tigers would be sought by the UNICEF when it meets the rebels in Berlin.

The Berlin talks are scaled down by half to two days because of the "fragile health" of LTTE's chief negotiator Anton Balasingham, 64, who is based in London.

The talks were shifted to Berlin because Balasingham found it difficult to make the longer journey to Thailand, the regular talks host, officials said.

The talks since the first face-to-face discussions in September have made significant breakthroughs in getting the Tigers committed to a peace process and a final solution within one country, but the two sides are yet to take up several contentious issues such as de-commissioning of weapons and the final shape of a settlement.

The main critic of the peace process has been President Chandrika Kumaratunga who is in an uneasy 'cohabitation' arrangement with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his 13-month-old government.

Kumaratunga has suggested that she may sack government and call snap elections, a power vested in her in line with the Constitution that gives sweeping authority to her.

She has also accused the government of keeping up a "charade" and described the peace process as a "peace circus".

However, in her characteristic blowing hot and cold style, Kumaratunga has also congratulated the Prime Minister for some successes with the peace bid.

PTI