Tuesday, July 11 2006 12:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Sri Lanka's only Tamil cabinet minister, Douglas Devananda, is looking for Indian assistance for the economic development of the embattled northeast in his island nation.

Now on a visit to India, Social Service and Social Welfare Minister Devananda has met senior government and political leaders seeking help that could generate economic activity in the predominantly Tamil region.

"There are so many areas where India can provide immense help," Devananda told IANS.

"There is housing, self-employment, hospitals, technology, teaching. There is a lot we can do with Indian assistance," he said.

The minister, who heads the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) and is viciously hated by the Tamil Tigers, said the response of the Indian leadership was positive.

"They say these are good suggestions," he said. "My feeling is that their response will be favourable."

Devananda made it clear that all Indian assistance to develop the northeast, large parts of which the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) controls, would have to be routed through the Sri Lankan Government.

Economic backwardness of Sri Lanka's northeast is what strikes any visitor, particularly in comparison to the rest of the island. Many Tamils often complain that Colombo does not do enough for the sprawling region.

India has in the past said it would be happy to help develop the northeast. New Delhi assisted in a big way following the December 2004 tsunami that devastated the coastal districts.

Devananda said he also told Indian leaders about the need to go for a political settlement of the ethnic conflict on the basis of the 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution that called for devolving powers to provincial councils.

"There is no one in Sri Lanka who disagrees with the 13th amendment," an exercise that had Indian backing in the 1980s, he said.

"Why can't it be a basis for a solution?" he said.

Devananda said he had also told Indian leaders about his own "three stage" solution that involves devolution of powers to the country's minorities, Tamils and Muslims included.

But he admitted that nothing would work in Sri Lanka unless proposals aimed at resolving the dragging conflict enjoyed the full support of the political class from the majority Sinhalese community.

Devananda was one of the oldest entrants to Tamil militancy. His political activities are looked down upon by the Tigers, who have more than once tried to assassinate him.

The LTTE dubs his EPDP a 'paramilitary' along with the breakaway Tamil Tiger group led by Karuna. Devananda denied the charges including complaints that his men have been involved in killing Tamils sympathetic to the LTTE.

"They (Tigers) will keep saying all this. They are the biggest armed group in Sri Lanka and they call us an armed group," he said.

"The reality is that since the (Norwegian-brokered 2002) ceasefire (between the government and LTTE) came into being, more than 200 of our cadres have been killed. What about that?" he said.