Jon Hanssen-Bauer, is likely to arrive in Colombo ahead of the next round o f peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland.The visit has not been finalized as yet but possibilities are being explored, Norwegian officials said on condition of anonymity, ahead of an official announcement.

Both the Sri Lankan government and the guerrillas were informed about Hanssen-Bauer's appointment on Thursday. He will supplement the task of top peace broker Erik Solheim, who has been playing a pivotal role in Sri Lanka's peace bid since 1998 and was instrumental in brokering a February 2002 cease-fire agreement.

Solheim was appointed as Norway's International Development Minister after the center-left coalition was elected to office in September. The new envoy will also help ease Solheim's workload, even though he will continue to lead the Norwegian peace effort in Sri Lanka, the officials said.

Hanssen-Bauer, has wide experience in peace building and was one of the key advisor's in the Middle East peace process. He has also worked in Haiti, China and Latin America.

He subsequently joined the Norwegian foreign ministry and has been working on strategy related to peace building.

Hanssen-Bauer will be apart of the Norwegian team when the Sri Lankan government and Tamil rebels meet for talks on April 19-21 in Geneva, the officials said.

Discuss this story Published: Fri Mar 17 01:22:29 EST 2006

The Tigers split in 2004 and the mainstream group accuses the army of backing the breakaway faction a charge the army denies.

Sri Lanka - 's military and the U.N. children's agency have frequently accused the mainstream rebels of forcing underage people to become combatants.

Procter did not say the Tigers were behind the latest protest, but local officials said the student group that organized it was a proxy for the rebels, who have fought since 1983 to create a separate homeland for the island country's minority ethnic Tamils, who claim discrimination by majority Sinhalese.

The issue of child soldiers figured prominently in government-rebel talks last month in Geneva on ways to preserve their 4-year-old cease-fire.

The talks were their first direct meeting in nearly three years.

The Norwegian-brokered truce has been endangered by an escalation of violence since December that killed 150 people, including 81 government security personnel.

The government blamed the Tigers for the attacks, while the rebels accused the government of waging a war against them.

Both sides agreed in Geneva to scale down the violence and meet again in April. Discuss this story Published: Fri Mar 17 07:25:26 EST 2006

Discuss this story Published: Fri Mar 17 20:55:01 EST 2006