COLOMBO, Jan 5: In what analysts describe as a politically significant move, a shipload of essential food items from India was heading towards the north of Sri Lanka on Friday to relieve the food shortage there, Sri Lankan government officials confirmed.

According to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Social Welfare, the Multi-Purpose Cooperative Societies would distribute the grocery sent from India to the war beleaguered Jaffna peninsula which has been acutely short of food for five months.

The food items would bring relief to the 600,000 Tamils of Jaffna who had been facing the food shortage since the A9 highway, linking Jaffna with the rest of Sri Lanka was blocked by the government for security reasons, after major clashes with the LTTE in August last year. “The government of Sri Lanka took this step to import the food needed for Jaffna from Chennai with the assistance of the Tamil Nadu administration,” a spokesman for Minister Douglas Devananda said.

Political sources said Sri Lanka had previously sent many requests to India to supply Jaffna with food, but that there was earlier reluctance on the part of India to do due to security fears.

‘‘Now it is the responsibility of the Sri Lankan government to see that the food is safely distributed,’’ a spokesman said.