Colombo: Sri Lanka yesterday (Dec 3, 2006) asked peace broker Norway to suspend contacts with Tamil Tigers amid intense pressure at home and abroad to outlaw the rebels and call off the Oslo initiative.


Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer, who arrived here last week, was told that his planned visit to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi on Tuesday would not meet with the government's approval.

Palitha Kohona, the head of the administration's secretariat coordinating the peace effort with Norway, said the government will take a decision after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday on future relations with the Tigers and until then the Norwegians have been asked not to contact the Tigers.

There was no immediate reaction from the Norwegians.

Hanssen-Bauer arrived here to discuss the state of the faltering peace process and the collapsing ceasefire with the government and the Tigers. He has already met with government officials.

While Hanssen-Bauer was in Colombo, a suicide bomber tried to assassinate Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse, who is also the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The government's main ally, the Buddhist Monk's party known as the JHU had a rally here yesterday demanding the banning of the Tigers and an end to the peace process. A similar demand was made by the Marxist JVP which supported Rajapakse at the last election campaign.