The Sri Lankan government said here Thursday that proposals for talks with the Tamil Tiger rebels are still alive despite the ongoing violence and seemingly hopeless situation for the resumption of the negotiating process.

Palitha Kohona, director general of the government peace secretariat told reporters that "proposals are very much on the table."

Kohona did not elaborate on whether they were fresh proposals or the government would opt to bypass the Norwegian peace facilitators as speculated by the local media.

Regarding the request of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) rebels to change the composition of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Kohona said the government would not agree to any unilateral decisions by the LTTE.

The LTTE, after a decision by the European Union (EU) to name the LTTE as a terrorist group late May, has asked for the replacement of truce monitors from three EU nations, namely, Denmark, Sweden and Finland in the SLMM.

Of the 57 truce monitors from the SLMM, 37 are from Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The foreign ministers of Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland are scheduled to meet in Oslo on Thursday over the LTTE's request to change the composition of the Nordic truce monitoring group in Sri Lanka observing the fragile truce.

Kohona said the Norwegians have an agreement with the government of Sri Lanka and it was unethical to change the composition of SLMM without the government consent.

Local media has speculated that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse had opened a private channel for negotiations with the rebels and he even intended to bypass the Norwegian facilitation in order to deal directly with the LTTE.

The violence has continued to show its upward trend -- during this month the rebels were accused of killing 68 Sinhalese civilians and assassinating the Sri Lanka Army's third highest ranking officer Major General Parami Kulatunga in a suicide attack.

Source: Xinhua