Colombo, Sept 14: Japan's special peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, today flew to rebel-held territory for talks with Tamil Tigers in a bid to jump-start the island's faltering peace process, diplomats said. Akashi was expected to discuss with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the question of resuming Norwegian-brokered peace talks with the Colombo government and speeding up rehabilitation work, they said.

On Friday, Akashi said the international community was frustrated with the current impasse in the peace process and wanted the rebels to end their boycott of negotiations. However, he said international aid donors were still committed to spending the promised 4.5 billion dollars to rebuild Sri Lanka despite the setbacks to the fragile peace process.

Akashi staged an aid-pledging conference in Japan in June to drum up foreign support to rebuild Sri Lanka and help boost prospects of peacefully ending the ethnic conflict which has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.

The Tamil Tigers pulled out of talks in April and boycotted the Tokyo aid meet charging that the Colombo government had failed to deliver on promises made to them during six rounds of talks since September 2002. "It will be good if they could resume the peace process soon," Akashi said Friday while declining to say what he would discuss with the tigers.

Bureau Report