Colombo: Norwegian peace envoys today (May 2, 2004) opened talks with Sri Lankan Government in a fresh bid to salvage the island nation's faltering efforts to end three decades of ethnic bloodshed, officials said.

Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, who arrived yesterday (May 1, 2004), was joined today by peace mediator Erik Solheim ahead of talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga, they said.

Both men travelled to the central hill station of Nuwara Eliya, where Kumaratunga was holidaying, to hold parleys.

Helgesen, who held talks with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse yesterday, is due to leave for Indonesia later today, but Solheim will stay on for talks with Tiger rebels, diplomats said.

Solheim will travel to the rebel-held Northern town of Kilinochi tomorrow to meet Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaders, they said, adding he will stay in Sri Lanka till Wednesday (May 5, 2004).

The mission follows Kumaratunga's telephone conversation last week with Norway's Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik asking him to help resume Oslo's peace brokering which had been on hold since she triggered a power struggle with her then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in November.