The issue of resuming talks to end the 15-year-old Tamil insurrection that has left an estimated 55,000 dead, 1 million displaced, and the economy in shambles is politically so sensitive that government ministers declined to speak on the record. But they admit privately that the administration is indeed looking for an opening.

Before the government commits itself to talks with the main rebel group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), it will have to obtain total backing of the main Opposition United National Party (UNP). Without Opposition support, the administration will be unable to offer concessions to the rebels. The governing People's Alliance Party has only a one-seat majority in the 225-member parliament.

Next month's visit by British envoy Derek Fatchett could be crucial.Fatchett is a successor to Liam Fox, who helped the UNP and the government reach an agreement in 1997 that later faltered.

Fatchett is coming to inaugurate a British trade fair, but his schedule includes meeting with President Chandrika Kumaratunga and UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, British diplomats said.

There are indications that the LTTE, which is now confined to northern jungles and one northern town, may also be willing to resume the dialogue they broke off in April 1995 by staging surprise attacks.

Last weekend the LTTE freed six Sri Lankan soldiers after holding them for about five years. The soldiers said they were puzzled by the LTTE gesture.

``The only reason I can even imagine is that they may have some idea of wanting to have talks with the government,'' said one of the freed men, Lance Corp D E Amarasinghe.

The LTTE said over its clandestine voice of the Tigers radio that the soldiers were released as a ``goodwill gesture''.

A top LTTE official said earlier this month that thegroup was not against a dialogue. Citing the examples of Kosovo and Bosnia, Tiger spokesman V Rudrakumaran, a US-based lawyer, told Colombo's Midweek Mirror that any major western power could bring the two sides together to talk.

The government is hoping to persuade the LTTE, which is fighting for an independent Tamil homeland in the north and the east, to agree instead to greater autonomy for Tamil-dominated areas within a federal structure.

``It is the only objective, well-developed approach which can form the core of a political solution,'' Jehan Perera, director of the Sri Lanka Peace Council, said. But to succeed there will be a need for a total consensus among the political parties to start with.''