Officials from the United States, Japan, the European Union (EU) and Norway opened a two-day conference in Washington on Monday regarding Sri Lanka's fragile peace process.

"This is basically the main forum that we're using to discuss strategies that the international community can pursue to be able to encourage the peace process in Sri Lanka," State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said at a briefing.

"We will be looking to see what we can do to help move that process forward. And we think it's important for the people of Sri Lanka that peace process does move forward and ultimately leads to a resolution of the long-standing situation in that country," Casey said.

US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and Richard Boucher, US assistant secretary of state for South Asia, will join officials from the EU, Japan and Norway at the conference, Casey added.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland for 3.2 million ethnic Tamils living in Sri Lanka, accusing the majority Sinhalese population of discriminating them.

Although neither side has officially withdrawn from the truce signed in 2002, over 3,200 people have been killed in the ongoing violence since December last year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2006)