Chennai: India had asked Sri Lanka "what sort" of role it could play in the peace process in the island republic, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said today (May 3, 2004).

"During my meeting with Sri Lanka's new Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar at New Delhi recently, he wanted a direct role by the Indian Government in the peace process. I asked him what sort of role he wanted India to play and he promised to get back to me after consultations with his Government," Sinha told a press conference.

He said after Kadirgamar getting back to him, India would decide about its role in the peace process.

Sinha said India wanted a solution for the ethnic strife in Sri Lanka within the framework of unified Sri Lanka and such a solution should come from "forces" within that country.

"No solution can be forced on them," he said.

Asked whether India had asked for extradition of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) supremo V Prabkaran to face trial on the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, in which he was the first accused, Sinha said Indian Government had made such requests to Sri Lankan Government several times.

He said that a decision on the land bridge between Danushkoti in India and Thalaimannar in Sri Lanka, as proposed by the Sri Lankan Government, would be taken only after peace returned in that country. Same was the case in respect of a ferry service between Tuticorin and Colombo, he said.