WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United States urged Sri Lanka's government and leaders of the Tamil Tigers on Tuesday to keep their ceasefire agreement signed in 2002.

    That agreement "is the foundation on which both the government of Sri Lanka and the Tamil Tigers can find mutual understanding and build sustainable peace," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

    "We're pressing both sides, the government as well as the Tigers, to honor the cease-fire agreement and return to a dialogue that will move the nation toward peace," the spokesman said.

    Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) leader Velupillai Prabakaran said Monday they will resume their struggle for independence for the Tamil people abandoning six years of negotiations to end the conflict.

    "The uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left us with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam (separate Tamil homeland)," Velupillai Prabakaran said.

    More than 60,000 have been killed in Indian Ocean island since Tamil Tigers launched its separatist campaign in the mid-1980s.