Sri Lankan Prez asks LTTE to lay down arms

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse on Thursday said that there would be no negotiations with LTTE till they lay down arms. The Tigers say that they are fighting to establish a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority. Sri Lankan government's special envoy to India had sought assurance from Colombo that all humanitarian steps would be taken to protect the ethnic Tamils in the island nation during the ongoing military offensive against the LTTE.