NEW DELHI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- India said on Saturday that it is deeply concerned about the welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka and called for Colombo to address the concerns of the minorities in the country.

    "India is profoundly concerned about the welfare of the Sri Lankan Tamils. It would be desirable that President Mahindra Rajapakse addresses the concerns of the minority and we have been assured that he will move forward in that direction," Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said in an interview to a private news channel.

    The new Indian foreign minister said Sri Lanka could now look forward to rebuilding the country with the assistance from India.

    "Sri Lanka has come out of a tragedy that it went through. Now Sri Lanka can look forward to rebuilding their nation, to bring about harmony amongst the people who live their and devolution of power to the Sri Lankan Tamils which was the root cause of their problem," he said.

    The minister said that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had gone on to say that he will give 5 billion rupees (100 million U.S. dollars).