New Delhi: Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajpakse has met the Minister of External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the worsening situation in Sri Lanka and other bilateral issues.
The meeting comes just a day after the LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran gave a speech to his cadres accusing the Sri Lankan President of trying to destroy the LTTE and calling the ceasefire agreement or CFA defunct.
The rebel leaders remarks are likely to figure when Rajpakse meets Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday. He will meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday.
The Peace process is at the top of the agenda between the two leaders.
India is concerned about the worsening humanitarian situation in the LTTE controlled northeast.
They will also discuss economic cooperation in various projects.
Even as the LTTE leader has called the ceasefire defunct, the US says it wants to work with India in trying to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Sri Lanka.
"India has been a force for peace and stability in Sri Lanka and I think all of us including India and the US have an obligation to see if we can convince the government as well as the LTTE that the time has come to put aside the use of force. It's not working," said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns.
Meanwhile the visit has met with protests both in Tamilnadu and in New Delhi by MDMK chief and member of the UPA Government Vaiko.
In Sri Lanka, Prabhakaran has issued a statement calling for political independence for Tamils.
Prabhakaran said Tamils had been cheated by successive majority Sinhalese governments and would be fooled no more.
President Rajapakse has already ruled out a separate homeland.
Sri Lanka's two-decade civil war has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983, around 3,000 of those this year alone.
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