Sri Lanka: Peace envoy steps up efforts

Sri Lanka’s president and a top Norwegian peace envoy are meeting today in a desperate attempt to prevent the nation’s slide back into civil war as separatist rebels prepared for a possible return to the battlefield.

The rebels admitted yesterday that they were training ethnic Tamil civilians for combat to bolster their ranks for an eventual return to war against government troops, adding urgency to this week’s shuttle diplomacy by Norwegian envoy Eric Solheim.