Denying comments made by the Tamil Tiger rebels that there is no agreement within the government on peace talks, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has challenged the rebels to resume peace talks within this month, the official Daily News reported Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, the president said Tuesday in an interview that all the parties in the government are willing to resume talks with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

"In this situation, the necessary environment needed for the resumption of talks has now been created. Therefore I request the LTTE to inform the government whether they are ready to commence peace talks within this month," said the president.

The LTTE said earlier that the government and all its coalition partners should convey their unified stand and their consensus in support of the peace process.

"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 Tuesday.

Responding to the LTTE's key demand that peace talks should be resumed on the basis of ISGA (Interim Self-Governing Authority) proposals, Kumaratunga said her government is ready to discuss these ISGA proposals but how this framework should be worked out has to be discussed.

"Following the talks held in Oslo between the government and the LTTE, the LTTE has accepted that the peace negotiations should be conducted within a unitary state and should be based on federalism. This clearly indicates that the government was not in agreement to a separate state," said the president.

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.

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.