The government has denied charges it is preventing aid from reaching rebel areas, which are concentrated in the north and east of the country. U.N. and other international assistance, including dry rations, tarpaulins and generators, are reaching those areas, where years of war have shattered the infrastructure and stalled economic development.

Later Saturday, Thamilselvan met Margareta Wahlstrom, the U.N. special coordinator for tsunami relief, and the U.N. coordinator for Sri Lanka - , Miguel Bermeo. They traveled to Tamil Tiger areas to assess damage, more than a week after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan toured devastated areas in Sri Lanka - .

Annan's visit ended in controversy because the government said it could not guarantee his safety if he traveled to rebel-held northern regions that suffered tsunami damage, and Annan only visited the east and south. Rebel leaders said the development was a sign of state-sponsored discrimination against the Tamil minority, though the government said it had no intention of politicizing tsunami relief efforts.

``At first, we found the signals coming from the south as positive,'' Thamilselvan said. But government aid only began to trickle into the north after several days, and the controversy over Annan's trip ``has made a significant impact on the thinking of the Tamil people,'' he said.

Wahlstrom, a Swede, said the United Nations had monitored recovery in rebel-held areas since the beginning of the crisis, and had been informed that efforts were going smoothly.

``The secretary general would like to return to Sri Lanka - ,'' she said. Wahlstrom did not comment on whether Annan would try to visit Tamil Tiger areas at a later stage.

During the interview with The Associated Press, Thamilselvan sat in a rattan chair in the shade of trees, wearing glasses, a white tunic and holding a cane the result of a leg injury that he suffered during a rebel operation in the early 1990s.

A concrete entrance to a bunker was adjacent to his office. Dressed in camouflage uniforms with a tiger print, two cadres with pistols in their holsters stood at a distance.

Speaking through an interpreter, Thamilselvan used terms common in ideological or academic jargon such as ``commonality'' and ``modalities.''

One of the worst-hit places in Sri Lanka - was Mullaitivu, a rebel-held town in the northeast that serves as a base for the guerrillas' naval force, known as the Sea Tigers. Over the years, cargo boats often unloaded weapons and ammunition into smaller speed boats, which then ferried the materiel to Tiger drop-off points in coves near Mullaitivu.

Thamilselvan said only six members of the maritime force died in the tsunami, while three or four boats were damaged.

``The reason why our vessels were not affected is that they were all in the high seas, engaged in exercises,'' he said. Under the terms of the 2002 cease-fire, the Sea Tigers had also shifted away from civilian population centers such as Mullaitivu, and had constructed installations further inland, he said.

However, Jane's Defense Weekly, a publication that analyzes military forces worldwide, said in a recent report that both the Sri Lankan armed forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels suffered extensive damage to infrastructure.

It cited numerous deaths among Tiger forces as well as ``extensive damage at Chalai, the main base of its naval arm, together with smaller Sea Tiger units along the northeast coast. This includes a number of boats sunk.'' Published: Sat Jan 15 09:38:00 EST 2005