India to help Sri Lanka improve air defences

COLOMBO (Reuters) - Sri Lanka has accepted Indian help to upgrade its air defence system in the wake of reports that Tamil Tiger rebels are seeking to build up their own air wing, the government said on Friday.
During a meeting with Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga in New Delhi last week, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voiced "concern" over reports that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are amassing air power.

"Yes, certainly we will accept (Indian help). We are looking into ways and means as to how this can be done," Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister told reporters at a joint news conference with his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh in Colombo.

Senior Sri Lankan military officials say India's help will likely comprise new radar equipment.

A broader defence pact between the two south Asian neighbours is also being drafted, which visiting Foreign Minister Natwar Singh said would allow India to train Sri Lankan troops.

"The defence cooperation agreement is in the process of being finalised ... That process is underway," Singh said.

Nordic monitors of a 2002 ceasefire have flown over a rebel airfield in the island's north, but cannot confirm intelligence reports that the Tigers have assembled two light aircraft from smuggled components.

The Tigers, whose two-decade war for self-rule killed over 64,000 people until the truce, have not given the Nordic Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission access to the airfield.

The rebels refuse to discuss whether they have aircraft.

India has kept out of public involvement in Sri Lankan security since an ill-fated foray in the 1980s when it initially trained the Tigers and later sent peace-keeping troops to Tamil-held areas in 1987 before becoming locked in open war with the rebels and forced to pull out in 1990.




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