Sunday, December 11 2005 16:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Sri Lanka has expressed concern over Norway's decision to impose conditions before resuming its efforts to broker peace between the island's government and Tamil Tigers, official sources said.

"The President invited Norway after committing the government to the peace process," a source close to President Mahinda Rajapakse said, "to say that there are new conditions is to put the government in am embarrassing position."

Official sources said Norway's Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Hans Brattskar was due to hold a meeting with Rajapakse's secretary, Lalith Weeratunga, tomorrow to discuss the peace process.

On Wednesday, President Rajapakse made a U-turn and asked Norway to resume its peace brokering efforts although he had in his election manifesto promised to revise the entire Norwegian-backed initiative begun by his predecessor Chandrika Kumaratunga.

"Our initial reaction is that it's positive that we've been asked to continue our work. This is a vote of confidence," Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim said in Oslo.

"But we want to make sure we agree with the government as well as with the LTTE on the conditions before we accept to take on that role again," he said.

Solheim declined to give details of the conditions saying he did not want to discuss them through the media.