Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Sunday asked the country's major Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance to support his effort to solve the country 's long drawn-out separatist conflict.

Addressing the island's 59th anniversary of independence, Rajapakse said that his government has taken all efforts to arrive at a common understanding among all political parties and other forces on the ethnic issue.

Rajapakse said all democratic forces should "place the motherland before one's family, race, religion or political party in the national agenda."

"I also wish to make this appeal to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) represented in parliament, who have so far not entered into dialogue or understanding with us," said the president.

"It is only by joining with us that the innocent Tamil people of the north can be liberated from terrorist intimidation and the misdeeds of violence; and the north could be emancipated," he added.

Holding 22 seats in the island country's 225-member parliament, the TNA is widely regarded as the proxy of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Soon after assuming office in November 2005, Rajapakse set up an All Party Representatives Committee to arrive at a common standing on the ethnic issue among the country's major political parties, but the TNA refused to participate in the process.

Violence between government troops and the LTTE has been escalating since December 2005, with more than 3900 people being killed.

Government troops also recaptured some of the LTTE' major strongholds in the Eastern Province last year.

Source: Xinhua