Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said that the government can no longer ignore the spate of killings by the Tamil Tiger rebels, a presidential statement available Thursday.

Kumaratunga said that since the signing of the ceasefire agreement more than two years ago the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels have been engaged in a continuing spree of killing members of Tamil political parties which had entered the democratic mainstream and the government could not ignore this anymore.

She blamed the previous government of former Prime Minister for not giving plausible reply to her warnings against the possible arising of such a situation when they signed the agreement with the LTTE rebels in February 2002.

"After our government came into power arrangements were made to provide security to every Tamil politician who requested such security," the president said.

According to the Tamil political parties, more than 100 of their members have been killed by the LTTE rebels since the signing of the ceasefire agreement.

The Tamil political parties have protested against the killing by the rebels and urged the Norwegian facilitators to stopped the rebel violence.