Oct 22, Colombo: Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is scheduled to visit India this week, government sources said.

The state official will hold talks with India's National Defense Advisor Shivshankar Menon in New Delhi. He is also scheduled to meet other senior Indian officials, according to the sources.

Defense Secretary's visit follows the visit by Sri Lanka's major Tamil constituent Tamil National Alliance earlier his month at the invitation of the Indian External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna to hold discussions with Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and other government officials in New Delhi.

India invited the TNA for discussions following a request made by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he met the Indian Prime Minister during his visit to India last month.

The Defense Secretary is expected to follow up on these discussions held to restart negotiations between the government and the Tamil party to resolve the ethnic issue.

Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has repeatedly called for the abolition of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution which India is pushing as the platform to devolve power to the minority Tamils.

There is a growing chorus in Sri Lanka to abolish the 13th Amendment as the TNA, the one-time proxy party of the Tamil Tiger terrorist group LTTE, is refusing to participate in the parliamentary select committee, the mechanism the Sri Lankan government established to achieve a sustainable political solution to devolve power.