Colombo: Tamil Tiger rebels on September 18 asked for more time to respond to the government proposal on setting up an interim administration, delaying the restart of peace talks with the Sri Lankan government.

Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, who travelled to the rebel-held North of the island on September 18, for talks on jump-starting the stalled peace process, said the rebels would respond only by mid-October.

Earlier, the Colombo government had expected the Tigers to make their proposals by the third week of September and were hopeful of resuming talks by the end of this month.

"We had a very constructive meeting covering a lot of ground. The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) indicated that their proposal would be ready by mid-October," Helgesen told local reporters in Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres North of Colombo.

The next round of talks were to focus on the LTTE's counter proposals.

Neither Helgesen nor LTTE's political wing leader S P Thamilselvan said when the talks would actually resume.

The Tigers had made the setting up of an interim administrative structure a pre-condition to return to negotiations they suspended in April after accusing Colombo of failing to deliver on promises made at six rounds of talks.

PTI