Colombo: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has rejected LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) rebels' demand for an interim council in embattled regions of the island and criticised the role of peacemaker Norway and financial backer Japan for overstepping their brief in their attempt to revive the stalled peace bid.

There cannot be an interim administrative council for the island's North East given to the Tamil Tiger rebels, Kumaratunga told the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Sri Lanka at a dinner meeting on May 23.

She insisted that the Tigers must renounce violence, de-commission weapons and declare that they no longer want a separate state called Eelam, before the rebels could be given political power.

The Tigers made the demand for an interim administration in exchange for ending their boycott of peace talks since April 21.

Kumaratunga was also highly critical of Norway and Japan and accused them overstepping their brief and having compromised the sovereignity of her country.

"Norwegians were invited by me only as facilitators, not as mediators or arbitrators," Kumaratunga said. "Would any government have tolerated a group of foreigners telling them to write away their sovereignty by recognising another Navy?" she asked.

"They clearly recommended to the government of Sri Lanka that they recognise the LTTE's Navy."

Asked for her reaction to Japan's hands-on approach to the peace process after being the top aid donor for decades, Kumaratunga also made known her displeasure over Tokyo.

"I don't know what role Japan has been given in the peace process," Kumaratunga said. "I was told by the Japanese government and also by the Prime Minister that it was strictly and exclusively a role to advise the government of Sri Lanka on development of the North East.

"Now whether Japan has been given a new task I don't know. I don't know how they can nudge or elbow the LTTE to the talks."

Japan appointed a special peace envoy to Sri Lanka late last year after Prime Minister Ranil Wickeremesinghe held talks with US President George W Bush at the White House.

Kumaratunga's party wants the role of ceasefire monitors extended and also have, among others, an Indian observer.

President Kumaratunga first announced inviting Norway to broker peace in December 1999 shortly after surviving a suicide assassination bid blamed on the Tigers.

However, her peace process appeared on hold in April 2001 and after her party's defeat at Parliamentary elections eight months later, the new Prime Minister Wickremesinghe asked Norway to revive the peace bid.

President Kumaratunga has since been critical of her cohabitation government's handling of the process. She accuses Wickremesinghe of granting too many concessions to the Tigers.

She said on May 23 night that she would use her Constitutional right to sack the government only if it threatened the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the island.

She accused Wickremesinghe of not disclosing his "framework" for negotiating with the Tigers even after 18 months of coming to power.

PTI