The rebels began fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic Tamil minority on the Indian Ocean island in 1983, but now say they will settle for autonomy in a federal state.

While most minority Tamils and Muslims support a federal power-sharing agreement between the government and Tamil Tigers, the majority Sinhalese are opposed to the deal, according to a poll released Wednesday.

Just as U.S. President George W. Bush was announcing in Washington that its military operation was under way in Iraq, Peiris and his Tamil Tigers counterpart, Anton Balasingham, shook hands for photographers with snowcapped Mount Fuji as their backdrop.

Both sides are worried that war in Iraq could deflate pledges made by international donors, including the United States and Britain. Some 20 countries have promised nearly US$90 million to help rebuild the island nation off the southern tip of India. Japan, the largest donor, will host another donor conference in June, where they hope to raise millions more.

``I made it very clear to the participants that this is not just Santa Claus coming down,'' Yasushi Akashi, Japan's special envoy to Sri Lanka - , told reporters Thursday. ``In the absence of concrete progress, it will become difficult, if not impossible, for the donor community to become generous.''

During the first two days of this week's talks, negotiators discussed recent cease-fire violations in the yearlong truce; efforts at economic recovery; the resettlement of 1.6 million displaced people; and a human rights monitoring and training program.

The Tigers accuse the majority Sinhalese, who are predominantly Buddhist, of discrimination in education and jobs against the country's 3.2 million minority Tamils, most of whom are Hindu and live in the north.

The government accuses the rebels of human rights abuses, such as recruiting children into their ranks and using women as suicide bombers, who have carried out some of the worst attacks of the civil war. Published: Thu Mar 20 03:07:38 EST 2003