COLOMBO, March 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said that a joint tsunami relief mechanism with the Tamil Tiger rebels should lead to the resumption of the stalled peace negotiations, political sources said Saturday.

    Kumaratunga made this remark despite coming under pressure fromher main coalition partner not to enter a joint relief mechanism with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

    The president told her Freedom Party delegates on Friday that she would soon put in place the mechanism and would make that an opportunity to start direct negotiations with the LTTE.

    Political sources said that Kumaratunga allayed fears expressedby her party men and sought their support towards the resumption of peace talks with the Tigers.

    The JVP or the People's Liberation Front which is the powerful partner in her ruling coalition and even some elements within her own party think that the government entering a mechanism with the LTTE for tsunami relief aid would confer de facto recognition to the rebel group.

    Kumaratunga told the delegates that the joint mechanism was meant for the limited purpose of co-ordinating post-tsunami rehabilitation and reconstruction and therefore would not pose anydanger to the country's sovereignty.

    She added that the tsunami devastation had provided an opportunity to further the peace negotiations aimed at ending the long drawn out ethnic separatist conflict that had claimed over 64,000 lives since the mid 1980s.

    The Dec. 26 tsunami devastated almost two thirds of Sri Lanka'scoastal area including the war ravaged north and east regions.

    The LTTE accused the government of discriminating the Tamil regions in providing relief assistance.

    The Norwegian peace facilitators who brokered the ongoing peaceprocess urged both sides to formulate a joint mechanism to co-ordinate the unprecedented pledges of international assistance.

    Despite starting negotiations on the joint mechanism mid February a breakthrough is yet to be achieved.

    The president's ruling coalition has been rocked by the public expression of opposition by the JVP to any joint arrangement with the LTTE.

    The JVP has threatened to quit the government in the event Kumaratunga struck a joint deal with the Tiger rebels.

    The direct peace talks came to be stalled in April 2003 after six rounds. Enditem