The accusation came just hours after Norway made a fresh bid to set up such a mechanism to distribute aid in rebel-held areas.

"The government is dragging its feet over the establishment of a joint mechanism to take forward the rehabilitation of tsunami destroyed northeast province," S.P. Tamilselvan, political head of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said in a statement on the Tamilnet.com website.

"The government is increasingly demonstrating its unwillingness to work with the LTTE in rebuilding the devastated areas."

Nearly 31,000 people were killed and more than 5,600 missing in Sri Lanka after the December 26 tsunamis which also caused severe destruction in northeast coastal areas controlled by the Tigers.

Tamilselvan said the rebels had submitted several proposals through Norwegian officials to the government "but the government is not sincere in creating a situation that would enable us to move forward."

One such proposal was that rebels would hold majority control in distribution of aid in the Tamil-dominated east and northeast regions, which was believed to be unacceptable to Colombo.

On Saturday Norwegian ambassador Hans Bratskar held talks with the rebels in the northeastern town of Killinochichi, the rebel capital, on the issue of the aid distribution mechanism.

A high-level Norwegian delegation led by Foreign Minister Jan Petersen last month held talks with the government and the rebels on the need to cooperate in distributing foreign tsunami aid.

The ongoing battle for control of tsunami relief aid has dimmed prospects of reviving Norwegian-backed peace talks between the rebels and the Colombo government.

The LTTE has made it clear any discussion over handling of tsunami relief would be kept separate from the peace process which remains stalled since the Tigers pulled out of talks in April 2003.

Initial euphoria that the tsunami disaster could bring the warring parties together now seems to have evaporated.

The Tigers have clarified that they did not want aid directly, but instead wanted international agencies to carry out the work on their own in areas of the island's northeast held by the rebels.

The Tigers and government troops, after battling for decades, have been observing a truce which Norway arranged in February 2002. But talks have been deadlocked since April 2003.