Colombo: Norway's peace envoys left today (May 12, 2004) unable to secure agreement on re-starting Sri Lanka's stalled peace talks, officials said.

Norway's Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and his Deputy Vidar Helgesen left today after a two-day visit during which they had extensive talks separately with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

However, there was no breakthrough.

"Some issues need to be discussed further before negotiations can start," the Norwegian embassy said in a brief statement. "Norway will continue to consult with the Government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the coming weeks."

Both Kumaratunga and Prabhakaran, however, "reaffirmed their request to Norway to act as facilitator for the process," the statement said.

It quoted Petersen as saying they had "constructive and positive meetings with both parties" and that "there is a clear commitment from the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE to resume direct negotiations."

There were sharp differences over where to hold future talks as well as the substance of negotiations.

The new Government wanted future talks conducted at a venue within Sri Lanka in contrast to the six rounds of talks with the previous Government held at overseas venues.

But, Tigers were keen negotiations be held outside Sri Lanka and be based on their proposal for self-rule, a demand rejected by Kumaratunga before her Marxist-backed Freedom Alliance came to power last month, official sources said.

LTTE was not interested in discussing a final settlement to the conflict, arguing Kumaratunga lacked the Parliamentary majority to push through reforms and therefore insisted on talking about interim arrangements.