The talks _ on strengthening a tenuous four-year-old cease-fire _ will be the first meeting between the two sides in almost three years.

The agreement on the dates came after discussions between Norway's top peace envoy Erik Solheim and Tiger ideologue Anton Balasingham in London.

Solheim, Norway's international development minister flew from the Norwegian capital Oslo, earlier Monday for the meeting, with the primary aim of clinching a deal on the dates for talks.

The government had earlier proposed Feb. 15-16 for the meeting. The dates proposed by the Tigers was conveyed to President Mahinda Rajapakse who had agreed, officials involved in the peace process said on condition of anonymity.

Last month, Solheim made a breakthrough in getting the government and the Tigers to agree to talks amid a wave of violence that had ignited war fears.

However, the proposed talks were thrown into disarray last week over the alleged abduction of 10 aid workers attached to a pro-rebel charity.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE, began fighting in 1983 to carve out an independent homeland for the island's 3.2 million Tamil minority, who claim discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The fighting killed nearly 65,000 before Norway brokered a cease-fire in February 2002. But subsequent peace talks collapsed in April 2003 amid rebel demands for wide autonomy in the Tamil-dominated north and east.

Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 6 10:52:50 EST 2006

TMVP Spokesman Thooyavan issuing a statement from his office in Batticaloa alleged that the LTTE is engaged in a campaign of denigrating the TMVP by linking it with the Sri Lankan Security Forces. "This is a pre-planned campaign to stall the peace talks," he noted.

He also pointed out that his party's leadership has declared unilateral ceasefire with the Vanni paramilitary group led by Prabakaran. But warned that during this period if the Vanni Paramilitary groups attacked their members or supporters, they would also have no choice but to retaliate and renounce their ceasefire declaration.

"In case we are forced to go back to war we pledge that we will launch a search and hunt operation against the Vanni paramilitaries not only in the east but also in the whole island," Thooyavan warned.

"After failing in its latest attempt to start its Eelam War IV the LTTE is trying to manufacture excuses to scuttle the talks. Various allegations leveled against the TMVP in its websites and the Tamil media are all designed to divert attention away from its past record of human rights violations and, more importantly, abduction of children to beef up its dwindling cadres.

"The latest allegation comes from the stage managed press conference in which 15-year-old Arulraj Senthilnathan of Punnaichcholai was produced before a group of LTTE cadres posing as journalists.

"Our information reveals that the so - called press conference was never held. Instead the boy had talked to four members of Vanni paramilitary's intelligence group masquerading as press reporters. These men had offered the boy a banana, Vadai and some tea and made him say what they wanted to hear.

We wish declare that we had never known this boy. He was never with us. Nor do we need abducted young boys to fight our battle against Prabakaran and his gang of criminals," the TMVP spokesman said in his statement.

Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 6 08:28:23 EST 2006

The 20-year-old man disappeared from his home in Batticaloa late Sunday, said an officer at the Defense Ministry's media unit, who cannot be named under the ministry's policies. He accused the rebels of carrying out the abduction.

The Tamil Tiger rebels have been blamed for a series of violence and abductions of members of rival groups in Sri Lanka's northeast in recent weeks. The rebels, who want to carve out a separate homeland for minority Tamils, in turn, have pointed the finger at a breakaway rebel faction and other anti-rebel groups for the alleged abduction of 10 Tamil relief workers last week. The groups deny any involvement in that abduction.

Three of those relief workers who disappeared have since returned home, while the fate of the others is not known.

Local police Inspector D. Rathnayake said a team of officers had been sent to investigate the abduction in Batticaloa. A motive behind the disappearance was not immediately know, and the rebels made no mention of it on their Web sites.

A Norway brokered cease-fire between the rebels and the government has come under heavy strain since December amid rising violence that has left 150 people dead.

Discuss this story Published: Mon Feb 6 03:48:14 EST 2006