Colombo: Mounting diplomatic pressure on the Tamil Tigers, the United States on June 13 asked the rebels to end their boycott of peace talks and immediately join negotiations with the Colombo government.

The US Embassy noted that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had missed an "important opportunity" by staying away from the Tokyo donors' conference this week.

The US Embassy said that the issues raised by the Tigers in their recent press releases should actually be taken up during discussions with the government.

"The issues that this organisation continues to raise through public announcements are exactly the types of issues that should be settled around a negotiating table," Embassy spokeswoman Cody Taylor said.

She said the US and the other co-chairs of the Tokyo donors' conference - Japan, Norway and the European Union- had urged the LTTE to attend the "highly successful donors conference".

"We urge them to return to talks with the government of Sri Lanka immediately," she said.

Her remarks came as President Chandrika Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) party warned that the country could be headed towards war.

"We want to be sure that that the security apparatus can face any situation that the country may face in the near future," PA spokesman Sarath Amunugama told reporters here.

Amunugama said they agreed with the LTTE that the government had complicated the country's ethnic conflict by involving powers, which had no geographic interest in the region.

Tigers hinted on June 11 that the US and Japan were meddling in the island's ethnic conflict and cast aspersions on peace broker Norway.

The LTTE in a statement on June 11 accused "formidable external forces" of interfering in the island's ethnic conflict, which has claimed over 60,000 lives since 1972.

At the Tokyo conference, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage asked the Tigers to end their talks' boycott. The US has declared the LTTE a terrorist organisation and will not talk to them directly.

Describing the LTTE as an outfit "best known for pioneering the practice of turning its sons and daughters into human bombs," Armitage said the Tigers must build trust and convince the world that they can play a legitimate role.

The LTTE statement criticised Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government for complicating the peace process by allowing "undue and unwarranted interference by extra territorial forces".

The US has in recent months taken a hands-on approach and moved to step up bilateral cooperation by providing equipment and training to Sri Lanka's security forces.

PTI