A top aide of President Mahinda Rajapakse asked Norway's peace facilitator Erik Solheim to send his envoy Jon Hannsen-Bauer for direct face-to-face talks with Tamil Tiger rebels and help resume peace negotiations, the Sunday Times said.

There was no immediate word from the government, but diplomatic sources said Oslo had been asking for clearance to travel to the rebel-held Wanni region to meet with the rebels to discuss the future of the peace initiative.

The Sri Lankan government has turned down requests for Norwegian diplomats here to cross front lines and meet with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaders, saying that it was unsafe because of ongoing fighting.

The Sunday Times said that the decision to invite a Norwegian envoy to travel to Wanni was an indication that the Colombo government was ready to save a collapsing truce and revive the peace process.

"It is also a reiteration of the government's commitment to the ceasefire agreement of February 2002," the Times said. "Official pronouncements had earlier cast doubts over the future of the ceasefire."

Peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the Tiger rebels collapsed in October last year leading to a further escalation of fighting.

Norway held a meeting of Sri Lanka's top aid donors last week in a bid to halt the new wave of bloodshed, but there was no breakthrough following that gathering.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in the new wave of fighting since December 2005 despite a truce in place since February 2002.

Meanwhile, Gunmen have shot dead two civilians in Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula, officials said Sunday as the government and Tamil Tigers blamed each other for the latest in a string of such killings.

The men were murdered Saturday in two separate incidents on the government-controlled peninsula, situated at the northern tip of Sri Lanka but cut off from the rest of the island by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory.

"The two civilians were shot dead by the suspected LTTE assassins in separate incidents in the Jaffna peninsula during the last 24 hours," the defence ministry in Colombo said.

The pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website, however, said it was the work of military intelligence operatives.

"Informed Jaffna sources said that the terror campaign has been stepped up by military intelligence operatives following a Claymore attack in Navanthurai where a military intelligence official was reportedly killed," Tamilnet said.