By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, November 3 (IslamOnline) - Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers (LTTE) wound up their second round of peace talks in Thailand Sunday, November 3.

Termed as "highly successful", the talks led to major breakthroughs aimed at resolving the nearly two decade long ethnic conflict and agreeing to begin talks on sharing power.

The two sides will now move to the third round in order to discuss "self-rule," or autonomy, for the Tamil areas in Sri Lanka's northern and eastern regions.

A joint statement, issued at the end of the four-day meeting, said the two sides are committed to accommodate the needs and aspirations of all the three communities in the east - Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese.

The talks also resulted in major agreements to set up two key committees, one to handle humanitarian and reconstruction needs in war-torn areas of northern and eastern Sri Lanka, the other to ensure the resettlement of people displaced from strategic areas now occupied by government troops. More than 64,500 people have died and more than 1.6 million have been displaced during the 19 years of civil war.

A sub-committee is to be set up to look into relevant political matters. It will be chaired by the heads of delegations to the peace talks, Anton Balasingham for LTTE and GL Peiris for the Sri Lankan government.

Peiris, who is Sri Lanka's minister for parliamentary affairs, will be assisted by cabinet minister Rauf Hakeem, leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress who is also taking care of safeguarding Muslim interests.

The two parties agreed on immediate measures to improve the security situation, inter-ethnic cooperation and respect for human rights in the north and east, the statement said. The current round of talks was supposed to discuss humanitarian issues only.

A marked progress at the talks was the agreement on discussing sharing of power. "The parties acknowledged that the peace talks must address a series of complex political issues in order to reach a negotiated solution to the ethnic conflict, including constitutional, legal, political and administrative issues," the statement said.

The third round of talks will take place Dec. 2-5 in Oslo. Norway is playing as mediator between the two warring sides although Sinhalese elements in Sri Lanka have accused Norway of being pro-LTTE. Norway spent more than five years trying to bring the Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam to the negotiating table.

The fourth round will be held from January 6 to 9, the fifth will be from February 7 to 10 and the sixth from March 18 to 21.

During the latest talks, the LTTE made a host of concessions and declared they are ready to join the political mainstream, providing their clearest renunciation of violence. During the first round of talks, Tamil Tigers renounced the idea of "Eelam", i.e., an independent Tamil State in Sri Lanka.

"It is the ultimate aim of the [Tigers] to enter the political mainstream, which is democratic," their chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, told a news conference today. "In the course of time the political wing of the LTTE might inaugurate a political party that will campaign democratically and face elections," Balasingham told AP.

Balasingham said that since autonomy is being taken up so soon, the Tigers will no longer insist on an interim administration for the northeast. He also said the rebels, who run a virtual parallel government in the northeast, will allow other political parties to operate there.

Tamils, who comprise 18 percent of Sri Lanka's 18.6 million population, complain of discrimination in jobs and education by the majority Sinhalese, who make up 74 percent of the population. Muslims constitute 7 percent.

Tamil Tigers maltreated Muslims and drove over a hundred thousand of them from their areas. About 65,000 of these Muslims still live as refugees in the south and parts of the east. Ironically these Muslims too are Tamils but they did not support the secessionist struggle of the LTTE.