Colombo: Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, on Monday invited representatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to enter peace talks.
The invitation was sent a day after the rebels issued a deadline to the new Government to come up with a "reasonable" political settlement or risk establishment of a separate Tamil state.
In an address to Colombo-based diplomats, Rajapakse said he wanted to hold talks with the Tigers but did not directly respond to the deadline issued by the LTTE.
"Let me use this occasion to reiterate my invitation to LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran for talks," the President said.
However, there was no cabinet meeting to discuss the statement made by Prabhakaran, a spokesman for Rajapakse's office said.
He said the government was also not issuing a statement on the LTTE supremo's ultimatum, but the president had referred to it in his speech to Colombo-based diplomats.
"We can resume work immediately on reviewing the operation of the ceasefire, whilst we prepare ourselves for eventual substantive talks," the President said.
Rajapakse, who had told Parliament on Friday that he wanted a "new peace process" and a "revision" of the current truce, said he expected the Tigers to abide by the ceasefire, stop human rights abuses, political killings and child recruitment.
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