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Sri Lanka's monitors meet rebels

By Frances Harrison
BBC correspondent in Colombo

<b>The head of Sri Lanka's ceasefire monitors has met Tamil Tiger rebels.</b>

This comes after reports of problems between the rebels' leader and a senior rebel commander in eastern Sri Lanka.

A pro-rebel website and a Tiger newspaper in the east have denied any split - the rebel leadership has yet to make any comment on the reports.

But if this does develop into a split within the Tamil Tigers, it would be the most serious crisis the organisation has faced in a decade.


<b>'Direct orders'</b>

On the pro-rebel website Tamilnet, a spokesman for the eastern commander, Colonel Karuna, was quoted as saying there was no split with the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.

"We will be functioning directly under the command of our leader" the spokesman said.

And a rebel newspaper in the east also denied Colonel Karuna had broken away from the main body of the Tamil Tigers.

But Colonel Karuna himself has remained silent.

Politicians in Colombo are unwilling to say much, although there was an emergency meeting on Wednesday night at the prime minister's house with Norwegian diplomats.

The prime minister's representative, G L Peiris, said he did not want to comment on the situation, but added that he felt there was no threat to the ceasefire with the rebels.

A spokesman for the president's party said these were rumblings and rumblings only in the east and they did not want to comment on the internal affairs of the rebels.

The head of the ceasefire monitoring mission, Major General Trond Furuhovde, flew to rebel headquarters in the north for a meeting on Thursday with the head of the Tigers' political wing.

He refused to give details about the meeting, but said it was constructive.