Power tussle puts Norway off

‘‘The resumption of peace talks is impeded by the political crisis,’’ Helgesen said. He said the talks, stalled last April, could have resumed ‘‘tomorrow’’ had there been ‘‘clarity on who holds political authority and responsibility on behalf of the government to ensure continuation of the ceasefire and resumption of negotiations’’.

‘‘Until such clarity is re-established, there is no space for further efforts by Norway to assist the parties,’’ he said.

‘‘We will go home and wait… We have no intention of abandoning the peace process, but there are limits to what we can do,’’ Helgesen said.

‘‘We need to make clear that the ceasefire will be much more difficult to sustain in a political vacuum,’’ Helgesen said. He said the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees the ceasefire and includes officials from Norway and other Nordic countries, would continue.

‘‘There is no change to SLMM activities. We are here to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire,’’ said spokeswoman Agnes Bragadottir, adding there were no reports of unrest or truce violations since the crisis began. Norway’s move comes a day after the reclusive leader of the Tamil Tigers also said the power struggle made it impossible to sit down and talk peace, but Velupillai Prabhakaran added that he had no plan to return to war.

Wickremesinghe had no comment and Kumaratunga’s office issued a statement saying ‘‘she reiterated that the ceasefire agreement continues to be in place and that negotiations between the government and the LTTE should continue’’.

They met Helgesen on Thursday after he held talks with Prabhakaran in Kilinochchi. (Reuters)