SATTAHIP, Thailand, September 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Sri Lanka's Norwegian-backed peace negotiations made an early break-through on their second day Tuesday, September 17, 2002, with warring parties agreeing on a road map for future talks, news agencies reported.

Sri Lanka's top negotiator G.L. Peiris said the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) agreed on dates for the next three rounds of talks between late October and January, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The exact dates are to be formally announced Wednesday, Septemberb18, at the close of the current talks.

The formal peace talks got under way, in the Thai city of Sattahip, at a tightly-guarded base Monday, September 16, after both sides pledged to work towards a peaceful end to Sri Lanka's drawn-out ethnic conflict which has claimed more than 60,000 lives.

Peiris, who is also Sri Lanka's Constitutional Affairs Minister, said he was "more than happy with the progress" in the past two days of talks and was confident of success.

"We will announce the exact date (for talks) tomorrow, but we have agreed on the dates for not one, but the next three rounds of talks," Peiris told reporters here.

He added that the two sides would be prepared to meet even more frequently after that and they were also planning to take up "political and legal issues" at a later date.

Contentious issues such as the Tamil Tiger rebels' demand for a separate state have not been taken up during this round of talks, which focused more on the humanitarian needs of the island's war-battered areas, official sources said.

"The talks have been frank and constructive and were held in a relaxed atmosphere, where the parties have shown understanding and mutual respect for each other's concerns," the Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok said in a statement.

The agreement on the dates for future negotiations was seen here as an early success for Norwegian diplomacy which has been trying to bring the warring parties to the table for the past five years.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan welcomed the formal face-to-face contacts, the first in seven years, and said the world body might play a bigger part in Sri Lanka's fragile peace process.

In Colombo, the country's tiny stock exchange rose 1.38 percent on news of the talks, with the All Share Price Index reaching a five-year high.

"There is a strong likelihood of a joint appeal for help by the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers on the question of landmines," a source close to the talks said earlier Tuesday.

Such an appeal would likely target the United States, India and the United Nations for expertise and funding for demining, he said.

Unofficial estimates put the number of mines planted in Sri Lanka's ravaged northeastern region at 1.0-1.5 million, and there are regular reports of civilian mine casualties.

The northeast has borne the brunt of the fighting during the LTTE's bid to establish an independent homeland for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority.

In another development, the sole Muslim delegate in the four-member government team, Rauf Hakeem, has been invited by the rebels for a separate meeting with top rebel leaders to hammer out outstanding issues, sources said.

While Tamils are the main minority, Muslims form the second largest group in the majority Sinhalese nation.

The government and the LTTE were also discussing measures to resettle some 800,000 people who have been displaced within the island as a result of the conflict.

Monday's hand shake between LTTE chief negotiator Anton Balasingham and his government counterpart G.L. Peiris was the first high-level public display of rapprochement between the two sides since their last peace bid in 1994.