First round of Sri Lanka-LTTE peace talks to be held in Oslo

"We will move very cautiously. It will be long and painstaking process," the daily quoted a government official as saying.

The newspaper said that Norweigian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, who visited Colombo on February 16 to discuss the modalities for peace talks with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and other Lankan leaders, would hold further consultations with all other parties before mapping out his strategy for peace talks.

He has already completed one lengthy round of talks with senior LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham in London and the Lankan leaders. The second round was expected to begin soon.

Meanwhile, in a significant decision the Lankan Government has decided to periodically inform the Indian Government about the progress of its talks with the LTTE.

Quoting government officials The Island daily said that the Lankan High Commissioner Mangla Moonasinghe has briefed the Indian authorities about the outcome of the talks held between Vollebaek and Kumaratunga.

On Sunday, Sinhalese Right-wing organisations, opposed to the involvement of Oslo in Sri Lankan affairs, held a protest outside the Norwegian embassy here.

The national movement against terrorism and Sinhala Veera Vidhana, in a statement condemned both Chandrika and Wickramasinghe for agreeing to the Norwegian facilitation which they said was part of the efforts of the Western nations to meddle in the affairs of sovereign states.

This was also part of efforts of the Western countries to gain a foothold in the region to put pressure on India to accept an outside role in its conflict with Pakistan, they said in the statement published in the local media on Sunday.