Sri Lanka seeks to avoid spat with India over military drive

Sri Lanka said Friday it will send a delegation to India to defuse mounting tensions over the escalating conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sri Lanka's minority Tamils share close cultural and religious links with the 55 million Tamils in the nearby south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Colombo's all-out assault on the northern stronghold of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has prompted New Delhi to voice "grave concern" over the conflict.

"We are hoping to send a team of MPs to India to educate them on the latest situation," Media Minister Yapa Abeywardena said in a statement over national radio, signalling that Sri Lanka was attempting to defuse pressure from India.

He insisted the government was trying to avoid civilian casualties.

"We know the difference between the Tamil civilians and the Tiger terrorists," he said, rejecting complaints from Tamil Nadu politicians that Tamil civilians were being targeted.

A group of MPs from the state have threatened to resign -- a move that could destabilise the federal government -- unless New Delhi puts pressure on Colombo.

The Sri Lankan government, which pulled out of a Norwegian-backed truce with the rebels in January, is trying to capture the rebel political headquarters of Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres (205 miles) north of Colombo.

Sri Lanka's ethnic Sinhalese-dominated government is engaged in one of its biggest offensives against the Tamil Tigers, who control part of the north of the island and want to carve out a separate state.

India, meanwhile, kept up the pressure on Sri Lanka, asking the government to "ensure the rights of its civilians are respected and they are protected from attacks".

Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon conveyed India's concerns to Sri Lankan ambassador to India, C. R. Jayasinghe after the top diplomat was summoned to the foreign ministry in New Delhi.

The foreign secretary told Jayasinghe India was "gravely worried" over the escalating conflict, an Indian government official said.

"Menon also told the Sri Lankan envoy that Colombo should find a negotiated political solution to the ethnic problem rather than look for a military victory," the Press Trust of India quoted the unnamed official as saying.

An estimated 230,000 Sri Lankan Tamil civilians have been displaced by the latest fighting.

Late on Thursday, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee echoed the foreign secretary's concerns, urging Colombo to find "a peacefully negotiated political settlement... within the framework of a united Sri Lanka".

New Delhi would "do all in its power to achieve this goal, to ameliorate the humanitarian conditions", he said, repeating the Indian view that the long-running dispute cannot be resolved by yet more fighting.

Sri Lanka's government, however, says peace will only come once the Tigers have been defeated.

Tens of thousands of people have died on both sides since the LTTE launched its campaign for an independent state in 1972.

Source: AFP