COLOMBO, Jan. 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels ended a long standing deadlock over the future of the fragile peace process Wednesday by agreeing to meet once again face to face, government officials said.
The Norwegian Minister of International Development, Erik Solheim, who held crucial talks Wednesday with the rebel leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Velupillai Prabakaran, has managed to achieve the breakthrough, officials added.
The two sides will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, in mid February to have talks on strengthening and fully implementing the ongoing Norwegian-backed ceasefire, diplomatic sources said.
"The talks, expected to begin in mid-February, would be limited to the implementation of the existing truce, which has come under increasing strain recently," Chief Negotiator and Political Strategist of the LTTE, Anton Balasingham, was quoted by the pro-Tamil website as saying.
This new opportunity for peace was, moreover, intended to give the newly elected Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, "another opportunity" to take up the peace process, Balasingham said.
He added the modalities of the talks are to be finalized by both sides through Norwegian facilitators.
Erik Solheim, after the meeting with Prabakaran, said it was a constructive step taken by the parties to the conflict, the website said.
The ceasefire was under severe strain particularly since the beginning of December 2005. Nearly 100 soldiers were killed in claymore mine explosions blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels.
The government, after the August 2005 assassination of the then foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, had called for talks to review and amend the February 2002 ceasefire agreement.
But the move came to be deadlocked over the choice of the venue. The government opted for an Asian venue while the LTTE insisted on the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
This will be the first direct talks between the LTTE and the government since March 2003. Enditem | 
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