A special European Union (EU) Ambassador is to visit the Tamil Tiger territory in Sri Lanka's north later this week to have talks on the Tamil Tiger demand to exclude truce monitors representing EU nations from the international truce monitoring mission, the Sri Lankan government said in Colombo Wednesday.

Keheliya Rambukwella, minister of policy planning and the government's defense spokesman, said that Andres Oljelund, a Swedish national and an ambassador at large, had arrived in Colombo on Monday.

"He will go to meet the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) on Friday to discuss the demand," Rambukwella said adding that the government was not in agreement with the Tiger demand.

The Tiger rebels, after the EU's listing them as a terrorist group end May, called for the exclusion of members representing Sweden, Denmark and Finland, all EU member nations from the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

The LTTE contends that after the ban the EU members would be prejudiced against the Tiger rebels.

The LTTE has given a Sept. 30 deadline for the exclusion of monitors from the three nations, but Rambukwella was not aware if Oljelund would ask the Tigers to extend the September deadline.

Thirty-seven of the 57-member SLMM come from the three nations and the Norwegian facilitators view the request as a difficult one to meet, according to diplomatic sources.

The SLMM has often faced criticism from both sides for alleged favoration of either side but the truce monitors reject the accusation of bias.

They have been observing the February 2002 ceasefire making rulings against the two sides -- mostly against rebels -- for frequent violations of the accord.

The government says the Tiger's request for change of monitors is unreasonable and that any changes could only be made after affecting amendments to the ceasefire agreement and with the consent of both parties and the Norwegian facilitators.

Source: Xinhua