Thursday, November 24 2005 15:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Sri Lanka's new President Mahinda Rajapakse today (Nov 24, 2005) invited political parties to hammer out a common position on reviving peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, a Government spokesman said.

Rajapakse has asked all political parties with representation in parliament to enter into a discussion with him on a way to saving the peace process, spokesman Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said.

The President in his election manifesto promised that he would hold talks with all political parties within three months to initiate a fresh discussion with Tiger rebels.

He appointed former diplomat John Gunaratne to head the Government's peace secretariat while retaining its former head Jayantha Dhanapala as an adviser.

It was not immediately clear how Rajapakse would initiate a discussion given that in his manifesto, which has the backing of Marxists as well as ultra nationalist Buddhist monks, he promises that there will be no concessions to Tamil Tigers.

He has also promised to overturn previous plans for a federal system in exchange for ethnic peace.

The Tigers are yet to react to Rajapakse's offer of direct talks and LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's annual policy statement on Sunday is seen as crucial to understand the direction of the peace bid.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's drawn out Tamil separatist conflict and four previous attempts at direct negotiations ended in failure and led to more bloodshed.