He said that he had no reason to believe that the Tamil Tigers will go to war and was optimistic that the LTTE wants to come to the negotiation table.

Speaking on the scheduled visit of Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim with LTTE leader Prabhakaran on the 23rd of January Bratskar said “the world is not going to change but it will lead to new opportunities”.

Tamil Tiger negotiator Anton Balasinham is also to visit Kilinochchi from London to join in the talks.

Attacks

Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) chief Hagrup Haukland who also had talks with the LTTE political leadership said that he is aware who is responsible for attacks against an SLMM office.

He said “it is not the LTTE. It is not the government, but we know who they are”

Howeve,r Haukland did not disclose who is responsible for the attacks.

An explosive devise was set off at the Batticaloa SLMM office on Friday night.

Commenting on the attacks on security personnel in the north and east S.P.Thamilselvan, leader of of the Tamil Tiger political wing said that it was a reaction from the civilians.

“Our people are been handled in a high handed manner and they are reacting ’’ said Thamilselvan. More... Published: Tue Jan 17 17:18:38 EST 2006

Separately, suspected rebels detonated an anti-personnel mine, killing one soldier and injuring another near the main northern city of Jaffna, 300 kilometers (185 miles) north of Colombo, the military's media unit said.

The attacks took place as Norway's Ambassador Hans Brattskar and Hagrup Haukland, head the monitoring team, held talks in the rebel-held north with Tiger political chief S.P Thamilselvan about the possibility of resuming stalled peace talks in a bid to keep the country from sliding back into civil war.

Suspected Tigers set off a bomb targeting a bus in Trincomalee said military spokesman Brig. Athula Jayawardena of the Tuesday's incident. ``After the explosion, (the rebels) also fired at us with small arms,'' Jayawardena said. Navy personnel shot back and some civilians were caught in the crossfire, he said.

The pro-rebel TamilNet Web site reported the two civilians were killed by Sri Lankan troops who fired in retaliation after the blast.

The two sides have held six rounds of peace talks, but subsequent talks have stalled over power-sharing disagreements.

Both sides say they are ready for talks, but there is disagreement over details. The rebels want sweeping autonomy, which the government warns would lead to the ethnic division of this island nation of 19 million people.

Norwegian peace broker Eric Solheim was scheduled to arrive on Jan. 23 as part of an effort to get the talks restarted. Discuss this story Published: Tue Jan 17 09:20:59 EST 2006