Wednesday, May 24 2006 10:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels yesterday (May 23, 2006) rejected a call to hold direct talks between its elusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they told a delegation of Buddhist and Christian clergy, which made the request, that any high-level meeting would only be through peace broker Norway and not directly.

The suggestion for a Rajapakse-Prabhakaran meet was made during a discussion with the Tiger political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi, the LTTE's official website reported.

"While appreciating your concern for peace and harmony, we cannot by-pass (peace broker) Norway in establishing contacts with the government to initiate a dialogue with President Mahinda Rajapakse as suggested by inter-religious group," the LTTE quoted Thamilselvan as saying.

It said the delegation of Buddhist and Christian leaders told Thamilselvan that the president was keen to meet with Prabhakaran and discuss a political settlement to the island's drawn out ethnic conflict.

Thamilselvan urged the clergy to impress on the Sri Lankan government to fully implement the February 2002 truce as a confidence building measure between the two sides.

"If it is sincerely interested in making progress in the peace process, it has to ensure full implementation of the ceasefire in so far as the delivery of normalcy to the war-affected civilian Tamil population," the LTTE said.

President Rajapakse during his election campaign last year had said he was prepared to the extra mile to meet face to face with Prabhakaran in a bid to resolve the decades-old ethnic conflict.