Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebel group offered an amnesty to its expelled renegade commander yesterday and stressed he was alone in his battle to break away from the main guerrilla group.

　　"Our national leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has offered an amnesty to Karuna that will allow him to lead a private life," the rebel group's political wing chief, S.P. Thamilselvan, told The Associated Press.

　　He said the message had been conveyed to the renegade commander Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, also known as Karuna, through a delegation led by a Roman Catholic bishop.

　　Muralitharan announced last Wednesday that he and 6,000 fighters were breaking away from Prabhakaran's Tamil Tigers. Two days later Prabhakaran announced that he had expelled Muralitharan from the group and his position as its eastern commander.

　　Muralitharan refused to relinquish power and has said he is a target of assassination.

　　"We have reliable information that killer squads sanctioned by the northern leadership (of the Tigers) have been sent with the intention of attacking me and my forces," he told AP.

　　The rebel moves came as Norway launched a new bid to keep alive Sri Lanka's peace process amid a snap parliamentary election triggered by infighting between the president and prime minister.

　　Norwegian peace broker Erik Solheim's arrival yesterday was scheduled to coincide roughly with the two-year anniversary of a landmark cease-fire signed between the Tigers and the government in February 2002.

　　But the unprecedented rebel rift has dealt the biggest test to the cease-fire so far, and one of the biggest blows to the Tigers since they began their insurrection in 1983.

　　The rebel split comes a month before elections and mirrors divisions in the government. President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe are locked in a power struggle.

　　(The Associated Press)