Asking India to withdraw all its military assistance to Sri Lankan forces against Tamil rebels, the LTTE has said the outfit was a "true" friend of New Delhi which must revoke the ban on it.

"It (India) must stop all military assistance given to Sri Lanka, remove the ban on our movement and recognise our struggle. I like to point out that our movement and our people are true friends of India," LTTE political head B Nadesan said in an e-mailed interview to the India based "The Week" magazine from an undisclosed location.

Asserting that the LTTE Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was in "excellent" health, he said the outfit was in favour of a ceasefire and peace talks but claimed that Sri Lankan government is keen on a military solution.

"The (Sri Lankan) government and military chiefs insist on a military solution while we have been saying that a solution can be reached only through ceasefire and peace talks," Nadesan said.

"If the Sri Lankan government continues to believe that an ethnic issue in a country can be solved by a military solution alone, it will only lead to the oppressed ethnic people achieving their aspirations with help from other countries," he said.

On the health condition of Prabhakaran, Nadesan asserted that he was in pink of health and was leading the current war against the Sri Lankan forces.

"Our leader is in excellent health and is leading the current war. The comments (that he will not live long) is an expression of the hatred for the Tamil people and our movement," he said in the interview.

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