Tamil Tigers 'not withdrawing from ceasefire'

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels have not quit a truce despite calling it “defunct,” European ceasefire monitors said today, as the government called for renewed peace talks.

Thorfinnur Omarsson, a spokesman for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, said the Tigers assured truce officials they would not withdraw from the 2002 Norwegian-brokered cease-fire during a meeting in the rebel stronghold in Kilinochchi yesterday.