President Mahinda Rajapakse wrapped up a meeting with major opposition parties of the majority Sinhalese community with an agreement to draft a political package to put to Tamil Tiger rebels, his spokesman said.

"The president proposed, and there was tacit agreement, to appoint a small committee to come up with a political proposal," the spokesman said.

No immediate deadline was set for the panel.

He said the president wanted the all-party conference to come up with a consensus plan that could be discussed with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Plan Implementation Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said Rajapakse had wanted the support of the opposition to push ahead with a political plan to end ethnic violence that has claimed over 60,000 lives in the past three decades.

As the party meeting began at the tightly-guarded presidential secretariat here, the authorities called for public cooperation to prevent bomb attacks in the main city of Colombo following a bomb scare.

Violence has escalated in Sri Lanka, where more than 600 people have been killed since December despite a 2002 ceasefire between Tamil Tiger rebels and the Colombo government troops.

"The main theme is to have a consensus on a final solution to the north-east issue," Rambukwella said. "Towards that, he (the president) is seeking the support of all main opposition parties."

Any move to devolve power to Tamils requires amending the constitution.

The government on its own does not have the mandatory two-thirds majority in parliament to do that without the backing of opposition lawmakers.

Rajapakse first made a brief announcement of his new initiative during talks with visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian affairs, Richard Boucher, on Thursday.

Boucher, who stopped over in Colombo on his way home from a meeting in Tokyo, pledged military support for Sri Lanka's government.

"It is important to be clear that the purpose of our assistance is not to encourage a return to war," he said.

"We firmly believe that there is no military solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict. Rather, our assistance is meant to help Sri Lanka deter a return to war."

In Tokyo, Sri Lanka's key international aid donors reviewed their support to the faltering peace efforts and asked both Colombo and the LTTE to de-escalate the violence and return to negotiations.

The European Union listed the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organisation earlier this week and promised further action to push the two sides back to the negotiating table.

Rambukwella, who is also the government's main spokesman on defence matters, said Colombo would send a four-member team to Oslo next week to discuss with the Tigers the safety of Scandinavian truce monitors.

The Tigers too have confirmed that they will participate in the talks proposed by peace broker Norway to ensure the safety of the 60-member Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

The SLMM called for flak jackets and hard hats last week following several close calls.