Tamil negotiations begin in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa sent his brother to India for talks with top officials, days after the neighbouring country called for the protection of ethnic Tamil civilians trapped in the island's civil war.

Basil Rajapaksa was to meet India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and other bureaucrats to discuss the political situation in the country, said Prasad Kariyawasam, additional secretary to Sri Lanka's Foreign Ministry.

India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said last week that a military victory would not end the decades-old civil war in Sri Lanka and called on the Government and Tamil Tiger rebels to seek a negotiated settlement.