COLOMBO , Oct 5: The United States has indicated that the Clinton administration was seriously examining the Sri Lankan Government request to clamp a ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), official sources today said.

The US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright assured the visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar during their meeting early this week at New York that an announcement in this regard would follow ``very soon'', they said.

Besides pressing for a ban on the LTTE for its ``indiscriminate and brutal'' use of force and violence, Kadirgamar also urged his American counterpart to give her ``due concern and consideration'' to the issue of forcible conscription of children by the LTTE.

During the discussions, Kadirgamar also drew her attention to the US Senate resolution last year branding LTTE a terrorist organisation and its recommendation to the State Department to take necessary action.

He also brought to her attention the judgement of a Canadian court declaring LTTE as a terrorist organisation and the tough line taken by the Australian Government against Tamil Tigers.

With the devolution proposals granting political and administrative autonomy to Tamils in place, the Sri Lankan Government has now launched a major propaganda offensive against the LTTE focusing on the ``terrible'' plight of children who were recruited as combatants and suicide cadre by the LTTE.

Kadirgamar has also made the plight of Tamil children, caught up in the ``whirlpool of violence'', the main theme of his address to the opening session of the 52nd session of the United Nations General Assembly last Friday.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.