Colombo (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Sri Lankan military has refused calls last night for a conditional surrender by the Tamil Tigers. “Our position is that they must lay down arms and surrender” stated Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara in Colombo.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) announced in a statement they were ready to comply with international calls for a ceasefire but said they would not lay down their arms. The have asked the United Nations and a quartet consisting of the United States, the European Union, Japan and one-time peace broker Norway “to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to seek not a military, but a political solution to the ethnic conflict”. However, the Tiger’s main objective remains a separate state for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority.

For months the army has been waging a heavy offensive against the Tigers, resulting in a series of victories, but at the cost of the safety of over 250 thousand civilian refugees.

The government has consistently rejected the possibility of a ceasefire and claims it will have wiped out the LTTE by the end of April, when the nation celebrates the Sinhalese New Year.