If there are no talks, with continued violence, we will see the government lose control of the north. I think the violence is a high-level LTTE decision to push the government toward war or talks where they will try to obtain concessions and seek international recognition and legitimacy.

The negative side of this (election) is that nothing is going to happen until the elections are over.

This (peace bid) will be a turning point and will give us a signal whether the problem is going to get better or worse.

Norway wants both sides to be committed to the cease-fire. Apart from that, I think Norway wants the government to give an assurance that certain of its coalition allies, which have been publicly denouncing the Norwegians, will be restrained from doing so.

Cooperation between the government and the Tamil Tiger rebels is at a standstill or even dead at the moment,

Both sides have shown an accommodative stance to get to talks. This could be a strategic move, but the basic thing is that there shouldn't be a situation where war could be a reasonable expectation.

The president needs to go much further than he has been prepared to go. There needs to be much greater commitment at the highest level for this to work out. It would seem we are returning to war.

There is a vociferous group from within the government that are saying it is better to go to war.

It is a referendum on nationalism versus internationalism, on modernity versus tradition.

He now has the ability to be more conciliatory and more accommodating -- he has the space to do that. The next few days will tell us whether he is going to do that.