Friday, September 29 2006 18:50 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: India is doing its best to persuade Sri Lanka's two leading political parties to devolve powers to the Tamil minority as part of an overall settlement of the ethnic conflict, a top official said Friday.

National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan said this to three Sri Lankan Tamil politicians during an hour-long interaction here.

V. Anandasangaree of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), D. Sitharathan of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOT) and T. Sritharan of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) underlined the need for New Delhi to help Sri Lanka reach a political consensus on the Tamil issue.

"We are doing what we can, we will continue the process," Sitharthan quoted Narayanan as saying.

Anandasangaree said the Indian model of governance would be widely accepted in Sri Lanka.

The three leaders, who are meeting government officials and political leaders, also underlined the suffering of innocent civilians in Sri Lanka's northeast due to fighting between the security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

They urged the importance of ending all violence so as to reach a political reconciliation in a country where a dragging Tamil separatist drive has claimed over 65,000 lives since 1983.

The visit to India of the three political leaders follows that of five Sri Lankan MPs from the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA). The TNA MPs had also met Narayanan.