Sri Lanka's rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said Tuesday that the government and all its coalition partners should convey their unified stand and their consensus in support of the peace process, reported the pro-rebel TamilNet.

"The Sri Lankan government's coalition partner, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and others are opposing the peace process. Therefore we cannot depend on the Sri Lankan President alone to take forward the peace process," the LTTE's political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan said.

"This is what our leader conveyed to the Sri Lankan President through the Norwegian Foreign Minister," Thamilselvan told reporters in the rebel-held north town of Kilonochchi after holding meeting with LTTE supporters in Parliament to discuss efforts to revive peace talks with the government.

All 22 lawmakers from the Tamil National Alliance, which represents the rebels in the 225-member Parliament, attended the meeting held Tuesday in Kilinochchi.

"Our leader explained our stand on the peace process very clearly to the Norwegians. We are prepared to start talks on the basis of the ISGA (Interim Self-Governing Authority) unconditionally," Thamilselvan said.

The LTTE said Thursday that it conveyed a message through Norwegian Foreign Minister Jan Peterson to President Chandrika Kumaratunga on how to take the country's stalled peace process forward during Peterson's meeting with LTTE supremo Velupillai Pirapaharan in Kilonochchi.

The LTTE rebels had been fighting against government forces to set up an independent Tamil homeland in the north and east since 1983 until they entered into a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in February 2002. Decades of conflicts have claimed more than 60,000 lives.

The government and the LTTE held six rounds of direct negotiations between September 2002 and April 2003 before they were deadlocked over the rebels' central demand for interim self-rule in large areas of the war-torn north and east that they control.

The Norwegian facilitators have been trying to revive the stalled peace talks since May this year but their efforts have been futile so far.