Mukherjee said during a question-and-answer session at a high-level security meeting in Singapore that "India is not actively participating in this process" because of ethnic reasons and its proximity to Sri Lanka.

India believes a "pro-active and active participation will complicate the issue instead of resolving it, but we stand fully behind the peace process which has been initiated," the minister said.

Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday launched talks with opposition parties to hammer out a plan to grant autonomy to separatist Tamil rebels.

Violence has recently 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 and its troops.

India has in the past offered support for the peace process but refrained from getting involved in the conflict following its disastrous military intervention during the 1980s.