* Sri Lanka government rejects LTTE ceasefire call
Monday, February 23, 2009, 7:51 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.

LTTE is known to call for ceasefires when they are losing militarily.

Feb 23, Colombo: Sri Lanka government today reiterated its stance of no ceasefire unless the LTTE rebels lay down their weapons and surrender in response to a call for a by the rebels.

The LTTE said they are ready to heed international calls for a ceasefire but will not surrender their weapons, according to a media release by the LTTE. Laying down arms is irrelevant, the rebels said.

LTTE's ceasefire call comes in the wake of losing two of their improvised aircraft that were sent on a suicide mission to attack the Sri Lankan Air Force installations on last Friday (20).

The government said it will not accept a conditional truce from the cornered Tigers until they unconditionally lay down arms first.

"Our position is that they must lay down arms and surrender," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said adding that there is no shift in the government's position.

The military has the Tigers cornered into a 100 square kilometer area in the Wanni region of the Northeast part of the country.

In a letter addressed to the U.S. President Barak Obama and released to its proxy website, TamilNet, the political head of the banned terrorist organization, B. Nadesan said the LTTE is "ready to discuss, co-operate, and work together in all their efforts to bring an immediate ceasefire and work towards a political settlement."

The rebels appealed the international community to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan government to seek not a military but a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

"The world should take note that calls for the LTTE to lay down its arms and surrender is not helpful for resolving the conflict," the statement said.

The rebel leader insisted that a separate Tamil state is the only solution to the conflict

"The international community, though it is hesitant to support the political aspirations of the Tamil people for an independent state, it must re-examine our point that an independent state is the only permanent solution to the Tamil-Sinhala conflict," the statement said.

Defence observers see the appeal as a ruse to influence tomorrow's U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations hearing on Sri Lanka.

LTTE is known to call for ceasefires when they are losing militarily. Defence analysts point out that the LTTE has used every ceasefire period to rearm and replenish their ranks to make a stronger comeback.

Sri Lankan government abrogated the defunct 2003 Norwegian brokered ceasefire agreement in January 2007 after repeated ceasefire violations by the rebels.