The presence of military commanders among delegates at peace talks tomorrow is a signal that Sri Lankan officials and Tamil Tiger rebels are set to tackle thorny issues that threaten to topple the government.

Major-General Shantha Kottegoda, from the Sri Lankan military, and rebel chief Karuna, will face each other at the Rose Garden resort hotel in Nakorn Pathom, Thailand, in the second round of Norway-backed talks.

The conclave, following last month’s inaugural session, was to have focused largely on the rehabilitation of people uprooted during the rebels’ bloody, decades long fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the North and East.

But the main thrust has shifted amid a looming political crisis that could see Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe fighting for survival if his main parliamentary supporter, a Muslim party, abandons him.

The senior commanders are expected to thrash out the increasingly volatile situation in the Eastern Batticaloa and Trincomalee areas, where the island’s two minorities, the Tamils and the Muslims, live in uneasy proximity to each other.

The government, dependent on the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress (SLMC) for its wafer-thin two-seat majority in the legislature, can ill afford an eruption of ethnic violence that would imperil an eight-month-old truce and could push the country back to war.

The Muslims, who charge that the rebels continue to harass the community, fear more trouble when the guerillas take charge of an interim regional administration that is to be set up while negotiations proceed.

One Asian diplomat said: “The government needs quick results more than the rebels do. Any outburst in the east could have serious political repercussions for the UNF (the ruling United National Front) government.

“The Tigers invited SLMC Mulsim leader Rauf Hakeem to talks with rebel supremo Velupillair Prabhakaran at the September round of negotiations.

“But that meeting never took place, leaving a restive Muslim community split over how to deal with the Tigers.”

Joining Karuna and the leader of the rebels’ political wing, S.P. Thamilchelvan, in Thailand will be chief rebel negotiator Anton Balasingham and his wife Adele, who arrived in Sri Lanka on October 15 from London.

Besides dealing with the Tamil-Muslim tension, the two delegations will finalise a joint task-force to handle the return of refugees and the clearing of about one million landmines in the North and East.