Nirupama Rao meets Sri Lankan President

The Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka discussed the security situation in the country with President Rajapaksa.

Amid a spurt in violence in Sri Lanka, Indian High Commissioner Nirupama Rao on Friday met the island nation's President Mahinda Rajapaksa and discussed the security situation in the country.

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Details of the meeting, in which several other diplomats representing the island's key financial backers were present, were not immediately available, but officials said they focused on the current security situation in the island.

Briefing Colombo-based envoys, including the Indian High Commissioner on Thursday, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera called for "tangible and specific international actions against the LTTE and its front organisations operating in different countries," a statement said here on Friday.

He told the diplomats that the government was committed to maintaining the Norway-brokered February 2002 truce with the guerrillas despite their recent mine explosions and other attacks, which he said were aimed at provoking the majority Sinhalese to unleash a backlash against minority Tamils.

"The fact that people have acted with restraint and calm up to now is a positive indication of the desire of the people to remain unprovoked," Samaraweera said.

She is believed to have emphasised that India condemned use of terrorism to achieve any means and that political dialogue was the only way to resolve outstanding issues.