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Sri Lankan govt extends truce with LTTE

Sri Lankan government has extended its ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam by another month, a day after the rebel outfit announced a similar decision.

The government's decision to extend its one-month truce, which is to expire on January 24, was made public by Norway, which is seeking to facilitate peace talks between the two sides.

A Norwegian foreign ministry statement said in Oslo that the Sri Lankan government had asked it to 'make it public' that it was extending its ceasefire till February 24.

The move was to give time to Norway to work out a lasting ceasefire, the statement said.

The LTTE first called for a month-long unilateral truce from December 24.

The government responded with its own cessation of hostilities for a month.

Norway is engaged in the task of hammering out a stable ceasefire mechanism by laying down terms and conditions. As the process may take time, the facilitator asked the two sides to extend their temporary truce announcements.

In a statement from its headquarters in northern Sri Lanka, the LTTE said on Sunday that it was extending the truce for another month 'as a gesture of peace and goodwill and also to provide further space and time for the Norwegian facilitators to workout terms and conditions for a mutually agreed structured ceasefire'.

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