Washington, June 17. (PTI): The United States has said it would continue to "hunt down" the LTTE and force it to give up the use of violence as a political weapon. 

"We have designated the LTTE as a foreign terrorist organisation.... In fact we will hunt them down and try to stop their finances. We would like them to work into a situation in which they are no longer a foreign terrorist organisation. They could do that by giving up, once and for all, violence as a political weapon," Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, said in an interview released yesterday. 

He warned that those who did not take the opportunity offered by the Lankan dialogue process, will be judged "harshly" by history. 

Pointing that India had a lot of influence in the region, Armitage said that the Ranil Wickremesinghe government was keeping New Delhi well informed about the progress of talks. 

"I know that the government of Ranil Wickremesinghe keeps Indian officials well advised on the status of deliberations in Colombo. I think that is the proper way ahead," he said. 

On the donors agreeing to provide support of $ 4.5 million to Sri Lanka at the Tokyo meet last week, Armitage said it "exceeded the wildest expectations of the organisers."