I am ready to resume talks with LTTE: Rajapaksa

The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa today said he is ready to resume peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels even as heavy fighting raged in the island's embattled north-east.

Rajapaksa will enter into negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) provided the guerrillas agree to resume from where they left off in October 2006, his spokesman Chandrapala Liyanage said.

"I am ready to talk even today in the present circumstances," the President was quoted as saying. "I am a total democrat and I believe in a peaceful negotiated settlement."

Rajapaksa said controversial proposals unveiled by his party earlier last month were not the final solution to the drawn out ethnic conflict and expressed his willingness to go along with a consensus in the country.

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