Related：Nearly 180 killed in Sri Lanka fighting
COLOMBO, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan government announced Sunday that it was ready for talks with the Tamil Tigers despite being engaged currently in some of the worst battles since the Norwegian brokered peace process began.
"We have responded positively to a message from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) on Friday. I was approached through the SLMM (international truce monitors) saying that they are ready to re-enter peace talks", Dr Palitha Kohona the Head of the government's peace secretariat told reporters.
He said the government was fully committed to the process of negotiations and welcomes the LTTE offer, "We are ready to start talks as soon as possible". The government was yet to hear the rebel response, he added.
Kohona addressed reporters after his deputy in the peace secretariat was gunned down by suspected LTTE attackers Saturday night in his Colombo suburb home.
Ketheesh Loganathan, a fellow Tamil and the deputy secretary general of the government peace secretariat was called by an unknown gang and shot him at point blank range.
He died while being driven to hospital. "We have no doubts that the LTTE was responsible for Loganathan's killing", Keheliya Rambukwella the Minister of Policy Planning and the government defense spokesman said.
The government statement for its willingness to re-start peace negotiations came after two weeks of bloodiest fighting in the conflict.
On Friday and Saturday the LTTE rebels carried out attacks against government troops in the northern Jaffna peninsula and in the eastern province.
Over 30 soldiers were killed in the battle on Friday which continued through Saturday. Defense sources said sporadic mortar and artillery fire were heard even on Sunday morning.
Escalation of violence since December 2005 accounted for the deaths of over 1100 people marring efforts by the Norwegians and the international community to bring both sides to the negotiating table.
The international community pleaded with both sides to cease hostilities and re-enter negotiations when the LTTE launched bloody attacks in the eastern province displacing thousands of civilians in response to a government military offensive to unlock an irrigation sluice gate shut down by the rebels late July in the eastern province.
The Norwegian backed peace process came to be stalled in April 2003 when the LTTE announced a temporary pull out from the process after six rounds of direct talks between September 2002 and March 2003.
More than 64,000 people have been killed in the separatist armed conflict waged by the LTTE rebels to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community in north and east of this Indian ocean island. Enditem
