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Norwegian peace envoy meets with Sri Lankan president

Norway's top peace envoy met with the Sri Lankan president yesterday ahead of talks with Tamil rebels later this month, but with both sides accusing the other of escalating attacks that could cloud the prospects for peace.

Erik Solheim, who heads Norwegian efforts to end Sri Lanka's nearly two decades of civil war, met with President Mahinda Rajapakse, said Chandrapala Liyanage, a presidential spokesman. Solheim was accompanied by his aide, Jon Hanssen-Bauer.

No details of the talks were immediately available, but on Wednesday, the rebel political chief, S.P. Thamilselvan, said after meeting with Hanssen-Bauer that they were disappointed by the accelerated pace of paramilitary violence.

The rebels say the government has failed to honor a pledge made at the last round of peace talks in Geneva in February to disarm paramilitary groups.

Meanwhile, two members of a breakaway Tamil Tiger rebel faction were wounded in the fighting on Wednesday in the hamlet of Panichchankern, a rebel-controlled area in eastern Sri Lanka, according to the TamilNet Web site, which backs the mainstream Tiger rebels.

A rebel faction based in eastern Sri Lanka broke away from the mainstream Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2004. The LTTE accuses the military of backing the renegade faction -- a charge the government denies.

There was no independent confirmation of the TamilNet report, as Sri Lankan police and army forces do not enter areas under rebel control.

The government accuses the separatist rebels of continuing to recruit underage combatants and attacking government troops.

A recent spike in violence that has left at least 166 people dead since December in the north and east -- where the majority of Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamils live -- has called in to question the efficacy of the cease-fire signed by the government and rebels in 2002 to end nearly two decades of civil war.
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