The two sides were whisked away from their warring terrain in Sri Lanka to Chateau de Bossey, a secluded castle just outside the Swiss capital Geneva, to try and iron out differences over a cease-fire, both sides accuse each other of failing to execute.

Wednesday, also marked four years since the Norwegian-brokered agreement was signed between former prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Norway's International Development Minister and top peace envoy Erik Solheim will make a statement ahead of facilitating the closed-door talks.

The government planned to set the stage for the meeting with an opening statement made by its chief negotiator Nimal Siripala de Silva, officials involved in the talks said on condition of anonymity.

The statement is expected to record the need for a fresh truce agreement but also say the government was willing to talk on how to make the existing pact work better, government aides said.

The officials said this was mainly to appease hardliners in President Mahinda Rajapakse's government whom he promised to rehaul the Norwegian-brokered peace bid and 2002 truce.

"It would be ideal if it (the cease-fire agreement) could be changed," Rohitha Bogollagama, spokesman for the government team told reporters here late Tuesday. "We have always been of the opinion that the cease-fire should be amended."

"There is a need to convert it to a meaningful agreement," he said.

The opening statements may draw a heated debate between the two groups, as the rebels have stressed that talks will be confined to the "implementation," of the truce.

"The agenda is one line, but there are one thousand matters to discuss," the rebels' chief negotiator Anton Balasingham said, in reference to the cease-fire.

The government has been preparing extensively for the two-day talks and is armed with dossiers of statistics and video material to argue their case.

The government negotiators will push for addendum's to the existing pact, officials said.

The Colombo team is likely to suggest an appendix to the current agreement by fleshing out contentious clauses like, disarming of paramilitary groups and offensive operations against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE, they said.

The four talks sessions, spread over two days is seen as crucial to halt a wave of deadly attacks that have reignited war fears in Sri Lanka. However, the parties are long way off and still remain sharply divided about a final peace deal to end a two decade civil war that killed nearly 65,000 people before the Feb. 22 truce agreement.

The process had been deadlocked since the rebels walked out after six rounds of peace talks in April 2003, demanding wide autonomy in the north and east.

A rush of chilling attacks attacks have killed nearly 200 people since December and pushed the island to the brink of war before Solheim clinched a deal on Jan. 25 for the two sides to resume talks in Geneva.

Although open to discuss changes to the pact, the government team is weary not to push too hard and risk the Tigers walking out of their first meeting.

Ensuring that the two sides will meet again and the process of dialogue continues will mark as a measurement of sucess for the two-day meeting, even through both sides don't expect major strides toward resolving their grievances.

Officials involved in the process expressed hope that the 18th century castle known to have a soothing effect because it's surrounded by the Alps and a breah-taking view of lake Geneva, will add to infusing a positive atmosphere at the talk

The rebels, fighting to carve out a separate state for the 3.2 million minority Tamils, say they suffer widespread discrimination in education and jobs at the hands of the 14 million Sinhalese majority.

Discuss this story Published: Tue Feb 21 18:21:10 EST 2006

"The aim of the LTTE is to force the Sri Lankan government to hand over Karuna. This is their priority, not P-Toms (Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure) or the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA). Karuna is getting stronger in the East -– that is the problem," says Dr S Chandrasekharan, head of New Delhi-based South Asia Analysis Group.

Karuna, Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's right-hand man, had raised the banner of revolt in March 2004. Since then, reprisal killings between the two groups have gone on. More...

Discuss this story Published: Tue Feb 21 23:39:48 EST 2006