In its first main contact with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after the slaying of Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's peace broker Norway on Wednesday held a crucial meeting with a top rebel negotiator in London.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Petersen and his deputy Vidar Helgesen held talks with Tamil Tiger chief peace negotiator Anton Balasingham in London, diplomatic sources in Colombo said.
Also read: 7 arrested in Sri Lanka during search ops
Details of the talks were not immediately available.
However, the sources said it was a crucial meeting where the Norwegians were expected to have conveyed Colombo's strong protest over Friday's assassination of Kadirgamar, which the government blamed on the LTTE.
Also read: Sri Lanka's foreign minister shot dead
LTTE has denied the government charges that it was behind the assassination of Kadirgamar, a Tamil Christian who had spearheaded a campaign to ban the rebel group internationally.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga had told Petersen on Monday, shortly after the cremation of Kadirgamar in Colombo, that Colombo wanted better enforcement of the Norwegian-arranged truce with the Tigers, official sources said.
Meanwhile, police said they were yet to make any breakthrough in the investigation into the slaying of the foreign minister despite the routine rounding up of scores of suspects.
