Norwegian peace brokers held crucial talks with a top Sri Lankan rebel negotiator in London yesterday amid stepped up violence and concerns that the assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister could push the island back into war.

Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Peterson and his deputy, Vidar Helgesen, met chief Tamil Tiger rebel peace negotiator Anton Balasingham at his London home, the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo said. Embassy spokesman Tom Knappskog declined to give details.

The Norwegians had conveyed Sri Lanka's dismay over the assassination and the need to renounce violence in order to move the faltering peace process forward, senior officials involved in the negotiations said on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to go on the record.

The officials said Petersen also told Balasingham that the Tigers must be committed to the cease-fire if they want to be seen as a credible partner of the peace process.

The talks are the first since Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar was killed by unidentified snipers on Friday. The UN Security Council yesterday strongly condemned the assassination as a "senseless act of terrorism."

European peace monitors have warned that a recent surge in violence could further endanger an already fragile cease-fire pact signed by the government and Tigers in 2002.

In the latest violence, four policemen were wounded yesterday in three separate attacks by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels, military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake said.

The UN Security Council said it expects Kadirgamar's murder will be "speedily investigated and the perpetrators, organizers and their sponsors brought to justice."

The Sri Lankan Government and the Tamil Tigers should "implement fully the provisions of the cease-fire agreement, and to continue their dialogue in order to attain sustainable peace and stability in the country," it said.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also paid tribute to Kadirgamar and said she was impressed with how the Sri Lankan people had responded to the tragedy.

"It is the great hope of the United States that out of this tragedy people will once again commit themselves to a path to peace," the US Embassy in Colombo quoted Rice as saying. "There can be no cause that is justified by terrorism and by violence."

The guerrillas began fighting in 1983 for an independent homeland in the north and east for Sri Lanka's ethnic minority Tamils. Subsequent peace talks stalled in June 2003 over rebel demands for more autonomy.

(China Daily August 18, 2005)