COLOMBO, Nov 2: The A9 Highway linking the south of Sri Lanka with Jaffna in the north has now become the country’s road to war. The A9 became a bargaining chip between the government and the rebels when the last weekends peace talks deadlocked over the LTTE demand to reopen the strategic route and the nation braced itself for rebels suicide attacks.

The government on Tuesday claimed that it wanted the rebels to give an assurance that they would not use the A9 road for its terrorist activities and declared that any ‘good behaviour’ from the Tamil Tigers would result into reopening the road.

The A9 road route, after remaining closed for over 10 years, was re-opened in February 2002 after a ceasefire agreement was signed between the then government and the LTTE leadership. The road was closed again in August after intense fighting broke out between troops and the rebels.

In its post-talks statement issued last Sunday, the LTTE compared the closure of the A9 to the Berlin Wall and said 600,000 Tamil people of the Jaffna peninsula were living in an "open prison" guarded by 60,000 Sri Lankan troops.

However, government defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella accused the rebels of having their own interests in the reopening of the road and not of the Tamil people. He was briefing journalists on the outcome of the peace talks,

But, he said, the government would continue to supply food and essential items to the people of Jaffna by a sea route.

Though the visible outcome of the two-day peace talks concluding on Oct 29, 2006, was zero with neither side agreeing to further talks, the head of the government delegation, Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, insisted that the talks could not be termed “unsuccessful”.

“For the first time the two parties discussed moves to reach a political solution including democracy and pluralism as well as the southern consensus reached to that effect”, de Silva told reporters, referring to the United National Party’s unconditional support extended to the Mahinda Rajapakse administration.