Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, in a special interview to Thinakkural, a Colombo based Tamil daily, claimed that the Indian government had given "full blessings" to the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa to "eliminate the LTTE."

 

Mr. Wickramanayaka further proclaimed that there was no "ethnic conflict" in Sri Lanka.

 

"The LTTE should lay their arms down if they want peace talks.