No plan to ban LTTE now, says Sri Lanka

Colombo, January 5: Sri Lankan government has said there is no plan at present to ban the LTTE, after it scrapped a six-year-old ceasefire agreement with the Tamil rebel outfit.

"As of now we have not thought of banning the LTTE," Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said on Friday.

"The talk of a ban has been speculative," he added.

Political observers had expected that the ban and the abrogation of the ceasefire pact would come about simultaneously, but the government as of now only chose to pull out of the truce agreement.

"We are looking at several options," Bogollagama said without elaborating, when asked what the government planned to do if it did not want to ban the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) now.

The Foreign Minister recalled President Mahinda Rajapakse's statement on December 26 in which he indicated the government's willingness for talks with the LTTE if it came to the negotiating table after laying down arms.