Sri Lankan PM rules out separate Tamil state

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wikremesinghe has ruled out dividing his country into two separate states, despite signing a ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tiger rebels last Friday.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been fighting for independence in the north and east of Sri Lanka since 1983 and have previously rejected offers of autonomy, saying the minority Tamil community can only prosper without the influence of the majority Sinhalese.