A Sinhalese majority nationalist group in Sri Lanka pressed the Norwegian government Friday to give up its peace brokering role with the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The Patriotic National Movement (PNM) activists staged a march to the Norwegian embassy demanding that Norwegians quit their peace facilitator's role between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

Wimal Weerawansa, joint secretary of the PNM, said the organization "will carry on with this protest action until the Norwegians decide to leave Sri Lanka."

Meanwhile, the police barbed wire barricades to prevent the PNM activists from reaching the premises of the Norwegian embassy in central Colombo.

The PNM backed by the main left party, the JVP or the People's Liberation Front, blames the Norwegians for their alleged favoritism towards the Tigers in brokering peace, saying they are aiding the LTTE's separatist agenda.

The protest came a day after Norwegian Minister of International Development Erik Solheim and Norway's special peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer departed here after consultations with the government and the rebels.

The two envoys were paving the way for the go-ahead of this month's face to face talks between the Tigers and the government in Geneva.

There had been some doubt about the talks scheduled for April 19 until Norwegian envoys arrived in Colombo to announce that talks will go ahead as planned despite the ongoing tension between the two sides.

Source: Xinhua