Colombo: Rejecting as "ridiculous" a fresh offer of amnesty by LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) leaders, a renegade Tamil Tiger commander today (Mar 9, 2004) maintained that he wanted a separate truce accord with the Sri Lankan Government.

V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, rejected the offer of amnesty by the LTTE leaders as "ridiculous", the commander's spokesman Varadan said.

Government-military officials in the East said Karuna has made it clear that he was still insisting on a separate truce accord with the Government and was unwilling to recognise the Scandinavian truce monitoring mission.

However, Karuna also said he was keen to avoid factional fighting and would abide by a ceasefire that is in place since February 2002.

Karuna's rejection of the amnesty conveyed by his former boss and LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran through the Bishop of Batticaloa Kingsley Swamipillai signalled the end of moves by prominent citizens in Batticaloa to help resolve the crisis.

Diplomatic sources said the failure triggered more uncertainty and that the stand-off between the two sides could seriously undermine Norway's attempts to broker peace.

Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim arrived in Colombo yesterday (Mar 8) on a previously arranged visit to review the Oslo-brokered truce between troops and Tigers, but would now have to focus on new developments too, diplomats said.

It was not immediately clear if Solheim would meet Karuna, a move that would amount to official recognition of his faction, but the renegade leader said he was prepared to hold talks on a fresh accord.