COLOMBO: Talks between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are likely to be held "as soon as possible within Sri Lanka," sources close to President Chandrika Kumaratunga told The Hindu .

The Government has rejected a call for holding talks in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

One of the venues under consideration is Omantai, in northern Sri Lanka's no-man's land, located between government-held and rebel-controlled territories. Omantai is about 10 km north of Vavuniya — the northernmost government- held town and around 60 km south of Kilinochchi, northern rebel-held town, where the LTTE's political headquarters is located.

The talks, if held at Omantai, will be the first instance in over a decade of high-level negotiations between the Government and the LTTE in Sri Lanka.

Now the talks have been called to review the "practical functioning" of the ceasefire, signed separately by the then Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and LTTE leader V. Prabakaran.

The continued killings by the LTTE and the issue of child conscriptions will engage Colombo's attention.

The delegations for talks have not been announced, but indications are the Government will send a "technical team." For the LTTE, the main issue is likely to be the two-year-old demand that the security forces withdraw from the northern Jaffna peninsula.

It will also focus on its concerns over the working of paramilitaries in the east — another term used by the LTTE for supporters of its former special commander, V. Muralitharan (`Colonel' Karuna), who rebelled against the leadership last year. Ms. Kumaratunga called the talks in a letter to the Norwegian Prime Minister, after the killing of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. The LTTE has, however, denied involvement in the assassination.

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