The United States move to form a global coalition against terrorism will not change Washington's stance towards Sri Lanka's ethnic crisis and the protracted separatist war.

"The U.S. government has not changed its stand in calling upon the Sri Lanka Government to initiate peace talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)," Stephen Holgate, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Colombo, told a local newspaper.

He said there was a distinction between Tiger guerillas, and the United States gearing to wage war against Afghanistan and other countries harbouring or encouraging terrorism.

The LTTE is one of 30 terrorist organisations which have been listed by the U.S. State Department.

Sri Lanka is among several Asian countries contacted by the U.S. law enforcement agencies to ascertain whether Osama bin Laden, Al Qaida or any related group had links with the LTTE, or other groups in Sri Lanka.

The September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington prompted worldwide outrage against terrorism and fuelled high hopes in Sri Lanka that a crack-down on Tiger guerillas would be imminent.

However, Holgate's assertions made it clear they would not be a specific target when the U.S. begins its global assault on terrorism.

'We are fighting against terrorists who are not asking anything, they are not demanding anything, and not coming for negotiations, they want only to kill Americans," he noted.

"We don't even know who carried out the attack; we only have a prime suspect, and Osama bin Laden, too, has not asked for anything.

"There is a distinction between the LTTE and the terrorists , so the U.S. has not changed its stand in calling on the Sri Lankan government to go for peace talks," Holgate explained.

Washington has made it clear that the September 11 attacks were masterminded by the Saudi millionaire and his Al Qaida group. According to authoritative sources, state intelligence agencies have pointed out that they had no information or credible reports about any such links.

The U.S. stance towards Sri Lanka was further underscored when the U.S. Embassy staff joined the "Sri Lanka First" campaign last Thursday where participants formed a human chain by holding hands to resume the peace process.

In marked contrast, the Sihala Urumaya handed over a letter to the U.S. Embassy in Colombo calling upon the U.S. government not to pressurise the Sri Lankan government to open talks with the Tamil guerrillas.

The letter addressed by the National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT), an organisation campaigning against terrorism, was handed over to the U.S. Embassy official, Jason Watson, by the Sihala Urumaya leader, Tilak Karunaratne.

"The LTTE is a leader in this mode of barbarism that now threatens the whole world. The LTTE cannot be ignored as an isolated organisation operating on a small poor vulnerable island. Its fund-raising capacities, its global reach, is undoubtedly the most wide-ranging in the world," said the letter.

The NMAT had stated that there can be peace only after the elimination of terrorism.

"We believe that it is now absolutely imperative for your government to understand what we Sri Lankans have been saying all along, that there can be no negotiations with terrorists," it added.