Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera will visit Norway and Finland next week, which will be his first visit to the two Nordic countries after assuming his office in November 2005.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Saturday in a press release that Samaraweera will meet Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store and "meetings are also likely to be held with other ministers of the Norwegian government."

Norway brokered a ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2002.

However, talks between the two parties stalled in April 2003 and escalating violence in Sri Lanka's north and east has claimed more than 700 lives since December last year.

In Finland, Samaraweera will meet with Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tumioja, said the release.

Finland is one of the five Nordic countries providing personnel to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission which has been monitoring the carrying out of the ceasefire in Sri Lanka since 2002.

Source: Xinhua