Sunday, November 27 2005 20:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Sri Lanka's top Tamil Tiger leader today (Nov 27,2005) issued an ultimatum to the new Sri Lankan Government to come up with a 'reasonable' political settlement by December 31 or risk the rebels setting up a separate state.

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in his much-awaited annual policy statement said their patience was wearing thin and he was making a final appeal for a political settlement that would answer their call for a separate state for the island's minority Tamils.

"This is our urgent and final appeal," he said.

"If the new Government rejects our urgent appeal, we will, next year establish self-Government in our homeland."

He said that the island's new president Mahinda Rajapakse had' failed to grasp the fundamentals and basic concepts' behind the decades-long war waged by the LTTE.

"Our people have lost patience, hope and reached the brink of utter frustration," Prabhakaran said at the end of a weeklong commemoration of 18,000 Tiger guerrillas who died in the fight against the security forces.

"They are not prepared to be tolerant any longer. The new Government should come forward soon with a reasonable political framework that will satisfy the political aspirations of the Tamil people. This is our urgent and final appeal," he said.

"If the new Government rejects our urgent appeal, we will, next year, in solidarity with our people, intensify our struggle for self-determination, our struggle for national liberation to establish self-Government in our homeland," he said.

Prabhakaran's statement comes two days after President Rajapakse in his own policy address said that he refused to recognize the LTTE's concept of a traditional homeland for the Tamils in the island's north and east and ruled out a federal solution to share power with Tamils.

Although he said he was willing to re-start stalled peace negotiations to end the conflict that has claimed over 60,000 lives, Rajapakse wanted to widen the list of negotiators to include other representatives of the minority community.

The president also insisted that he would review the Norwegian-brokered truce that is now in force between troops and the LTTE to make it more stringent and rule out rebel infringements such as abductions and the recruitment of child soldiers.

Saying that the LTTE was now at a 'historic turning point' in its struggle for self-determination, Prabhakaran said he had lost faith in the commitment of Sinhalese leaders in the south of the country to settle the rebels' demand.

He said there was a vast difference between the position of President Rajapakse and the Tamil demands for autonomy. But they were willing to give the new president time to come to terms with the problem.

"This new Government is extending its hand of friendship towards us and is calling our organization for peace talks it claims that it is going to adopt a new approach towards the peace process," he said.

"Having carefully examined his policy statement in depth, we have come to a conclusion that President Rajapakse has not grasped the fundamentals, the basic concepts underlying the Tamil national question," he said.