Lanka wants talks with Tamil rebels

‘‘Don’t take my patience as my weakness,’’ said

Rajapakse, a day before Norwegian peace broker Erik Solheim was to arrive to try to bring the two parties back to the negotiating table.

‘‘Let us sit down together and talk and from there we can pick the thread up and carry on,’’ said Rajapakse, who won the November 17 presidential election on pledges that he would not divide this island along ethnic lines.

About two weeks after Rajapakse won the election, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, the reclusive rebel leader, announced that he would intensify the struggle for an independent homeland if the minority Tamils’ grievances were not addressed.

The rebels’ November 27 statement was followed by a surge in violence, with suspected rebels attacking Sri Lankan security forces almost daily.

Meanwhile, two blasts rocked Tiger-held territory in nation’s northwest and may have been aimed at a convoy carrying senior guerrilla leaders, newspapers and military officials said on Sunday.

The Sunday Observer said two senior Tiger leaders had been killed when a convoy was ambushed in Mannar. But the Tamil Tiger rebels said that the blasts had occurred during a training exercise and no one was hurt.