Only talks can end Lankan conflict: India

Solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict has to be found through dialogue and not through violence, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said.

Expressing concerns over the deteriorating security situation in Sri Lanka, Mukherjee said India's position has always been that the solution has to be found 'through dialogue, discussion and negotiations.'

"Nothing can be achieved through violence," he told the Sri Lankan leadership during his one-day visit to the island nation on Tuesday to invite President Mahinda Rajapakse to the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation summit to be held in April in New Delhi.

According to diplomatic sources, the Indian foreign minister held bilateral discussions, including economic cooperation and the island's faltering peace bid, with President Mahinda Rajapakse, his Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera and Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana at Temple Trees official residence of the President.
Mukherjee left on Wednesday in a special aircraft for Maldives to invite Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to attend the April summit. A statement from the foreign ministry in Colombo said the leaders shared with the Indian minister 'the measures taken to ensure security while ensuring peace process.'