Chennai, July 26: Sri Lankan foreign secretary Nihal Rodrigo today expressed hope that the Norwegian-brokered peace talks between his government and the LTTE would succeed and normalcy would be restored in the island nation. Rodrigo, who arrived here from New Delhi after meeting his Indian counterpart Kanwal Sibal with whom he had wide ranging discussions on Indo-Sri Lankan relationship, said the "silverline" in the peace process was the ceasefire. "This has given us much time," he said, adding the LTTE had already announced that it was committed to the ceasefire. He said his government had sent a set of proposals to the LTTE for its consideration. "This is mainly to implement quickly several schemes particularly in the country's north-east. We have got generous contributions for specific projects," he told reporters. On Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa's opposition to a road bridge between India and Sri Lanka, he said it was a long pending project. "We will discuss all the problems concerning the project before implementation. We are not in a hurry," he said.

He said during his visit to New Delhi, he had met the Foreign minister Yashwant Sinha, who was likely to visit Colombo very soon.

During the official level talks, which was resumed after a three-and-a-half-year gap, all aspects of Indo-Sri Lankan relationship were discussed, he said.

Bureau Report.