Colombo: The sacked regional commander of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today (Mar 8, 2004) allayed fears of factional fighting within the organisation and said he was ready to meet Norwegian envoys to discuss a new truce.

LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) breakaway commander V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna conveyed through his spokesman that he was keen to avoid a factional war but reserved the right to self defence.

The spokesman Varadan said Karuna had asked peace-broker Norway to help arrange a separate truce between his faction and Government Forces and was awaiting a response.

The Sri Lankan Defence Ministry had already rejected the request on Friday (Mar 5, 2004).

"On our part we have spoken to Norwegian embassy. Now it is up to them. If they like to meet us, we are ready to discuss," Varadan said.

Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim is due to arrive in Colombo later in the day on a previously arranged visit to review the truce between the Government and the LTTE that has been in place since February 2002, diplomats said.

It was not immediately clear if Solheim was planning to meet Karuna.

Government Forces, which have remained neutral in the deepening crisis between two factions of the Tamil Tiger guerrilla movement, have been placed on red alert amid fears of a factional war in the island's East.

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Batticaloa, an area controlled by Karuna, led a delegation to the north of the island to meet with the main Tiger leadership based there in a bid to arrange a reconciliation.

"Our political leaders met with the delegation and we have made our position clear," spokesman for Karuna said when contacted by telephone. "We don't want to work under the northern leadership."

Shops and schools were closed in Batticaloa today (Mar 8) in support of Karuna while public transport too kept off the streets, residents said.

Thousands of people took to the streets in the district controlled by Karuna yesterday (Mar 7) and burnt the effigies of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Karuna, 37, was formally dismissed from the Tiger movement by Prabhakaran, 49, on Saturday. A replacement has not been able to take physical charge of the East as Karuna refused to step down.

Karuna, the de facto Number Two in the LTTE, led the unprecedented breakaway after accusing his boss of giving key positions to Tamils from the north, known as Jaffna Tamils, overlooking the Batticaloa Tamils from the East.