Foreign help sought to bring Tigers back to peace talks

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Friday sought international help to prod Tamil Tigers waging a battle for a separate homeland to return to the negotiating table.

"The international community should once again seek to prevail upon the LTTE to return to the negotiations and to negotiate in good faith," he said during a visit to Washington, where he held talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other senior government officials.

Bogollagama called upon the international community to make clear to the LTTE that they should respond "in a time bound fashion with specific targets" if they wanted to return to talks.

They should "not seek to use such an opportunity to merely buy time or to score tactical advantages," he said.

"Above all they must join the democratic political mainstream. After all there are several militant groups that have successfully made this transition," he said.

Bogollagama said it was "hard to tell" whether foreigners would succeed in convincing the LTTE but added that they "must push the LTTE to make this choice, and make it now" as Colombo prepared constitutional reforms that would set the stage for devolution of power in Sri Lanka.

An all-party consultative committee has emerged with several proposed constitutional reforms to be refined into a "final" plan by April, he said.

If the Tamil Tigers "cannot be de-clawed," he said, the international community should commit themselves to work with Tamil democratic parties to further the interests of the Tamil community.