Colombo: Sri Lanka's main political parties today (Mar 4, 2004) reacted cautiously to reports of a rift with Tamil Tiger leadership as Norway moved to salvage a fragile truce.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party reacted cautiously to the power struggle within the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) saying they believed it was not serious.

"As far as we are concerned these are rumblings and rumblings only," spokesman for Kumaratunga's party Mangala Samaraweera said. "We sincerely hope the peace process will continue."

The first major public airing of differences in the usually highly disciplined Tigers, involving the outfit's Eastern commander V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, were seen yesterday (Mar 3, 2004).

The Government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also declined to comment on the crisis amid reports that Karuna was moving to act more independently.

"There is a problem, but we have no reason to believe that the continuation of the ceasefire agreement is in doubt," Government spokesman G L Peiris said. "It is not useful to comment on this matter."

The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website denied there was a "major split" in the LTTE, led by elusive supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, 49, who is based in the North of the island.

"We will be functioning directly under the command of our leader," Tamilnet quoted a spokesman of Karuna as saying. He said, "There is no split in the LTTE."

However, diplomatic sources said Karuna, who is also a member of the Tigers' peace negotiating team, had informed Norway through his aide that he should be treated as a separate entity, signalling his dissent.

Karuna had also asked the Government military to help him bring back forces loyal to him from the North of the country, a military official said.

Local rebel sources said Karuna had been unhappy about two killings Monday (Mar 1, 2004) in his area apparently carried on the orders of the LTTE's intelligence chief Pottu Amman.

Scandinavian truce monitors opened talks with the LTTE leadership in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres North, spokeswoman for the monitors, Agnes Bragadottir said.

She said that truce chief Trond Furuhovde was already discussing with the political wing head of the LTTE, S P Thamilselvan. No details of the talks were immediately available.

Diplomatic sources said there was no clear indication of how serious the rift with the LTTE was and noted that any open defiance of the Tiger leadership usually led to dire consequences.

Government military commanders were also puzzled over the timing of the crisis, which erupted a month ahead of elections the rebels are contesting through proxy candidates.