Saturday, August 6 2005 09:54 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Sri Lanka's President has called for a review of the Oslo-brokered truce, the Government said yesterday (August 5, 2005), as a top Norwegian envoy made another attempt to salvage the island's troubled peace process.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga said she was seeking new measures to fill gaps in the ceasefire agreement with rebels that went into effect in February 2002 but did not give details.

Kumaratunga held talks on Thursday (August 4, 2005) with Norway's Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen, who went in for another round of discussions with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the rebel-held north yesterday (August 5, 2005), diplomats said.

"The President expressed the Government's readiness to a review of the ceasefire agreement (CFA) as proposed by the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and as distinct from a renegotiation of the CFA," her office said in a statement.

It called for ancillary arrangements to remedy what she called current gaps in the ceasefire and build confidence.

A spate of killings in the island's east and the mob murder of a senior police officer in the island's north on Thursday (August 4, 2005) following an army slaying of a local barber have added to concerns about the truce.

LTTE political wing Chief S P Thamilselvan said Thursday's (August 4, 2005) killings in Jaffna peninsula were unfortunate and called for adherence to truce stipulations relating to the military presence in populated areas.

"He however assured that the LTTE would do the best in the restricted military controlled area to calm the situation," the LTTE said in a statement.