Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels have expressed concern over the sustenance of the Norwegian-backed truce with the government which has been in place for more than two years, a rebel spokesman said Tuesday.

Daya Master, spokesman of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said that the rebels had told the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo Hans Brattskar that the February 2002 ceasefire agreement was in grave danger due to happenings in the east of the country.

Brattskar visited the rebel-held Kilinochchi district in the north on Tuesday to meet with the LTTE's political leadership.

The LTTE have been making protest during the last fortnight over alleged government troops complicity with the LTTE's renegade eastern commander Known as Karuna.

They urged the government to come clean on the Karuna affair and charged that the government was using Karuna to weaken the LTTE.

Karuna who had broken ranks with the LTTE in March on Sunday denied any military backing for him and accused the LTTE leader Prabhakaran of making war preparations.

The Norwegian peace facilitators have been trying to revive the stalled peace talks since May.

Their efforts have so far proved futile due to problems over the renegade rebel commander Karuna and initial disagreements over a Tiger blueprint for an interim power sharing arrangement in the war torn regions.

Meanwhile, the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Tuesday said the peace process has got stagnated and had entered a difficult phase.

G.L. Peiris, the party spokesman, said "there is total lack of consistency in the peace process".

He was making reference to the hardline opposition expressed by the government's leftist partner JVP or People's Liberation Front toward the interim power sharing plan of the Tigers.