Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam (LTTE) has welcomed the appointment of Des Browne as Special Envoy to Sri Lanka by the British Prime Minister on Thursday. In a letter addressed to Mr. Des Browne, LTTE's Head of International Diplomatic Relations S. Pathmanathan said the British government had a moral responsibility to intervene to stop the genocide being committed by the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) on Tamil civilians in the island of Sri Lanka.

The LTTE remained committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict and honoured the February 2002 peace pact, the letter addressed to Mr. Des Browne said.

Britain named a special envoy to Sri Lanka on Thursday to help bring about a political solution to the island�s long-running conflict and to ease hardships to Tamil civilians trapped in the Vanni warzone.

Sri Lanka swiftly rejected the appointment of the special envoy as �an intrusion into internal affairs� and said the British move was "disrespectful to the country's statehood."

Mr. Pathmanathan, a senior leader of the LTTE is working abroad with required mandate from the LTTE leadership to represent the movement in any future peace initiatives and to function as the primary point of contact for engaging with the international community.