Sri Lanka: Foreign minister calls for talks to end `futile' 17-year war.

Ending a lull in their separatist fight, rebels in Sri Lanka resumed an assault on their former stronghold of Jaffna on Tuesday, while the island's government said it was time to talk peace. Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar acknowledged that Vellupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tamil rebels, was fighting a ``good battle'' but said it was time to come to the peace table after 17 years of war. The government's appeal for peace talks came less than a week after it had rejected a cease-fire to allow nearly 40,000 government soldiers to withdraw from the northern Jaffna Peninsula, which the rebels seek as part of a Tamil homeland. There was no comment on the government peace offer on the Tamil guerrillas' Web sites, but the latest update showed the rebels had resumed their attack on Jaffna after a three-day lull. The Web sites said the rebels had launched assaults on their former stronghold of Jaffna from two fronts and were within one mile of the city. Chief government information officer Ariya Rubasinghe said at least 40 rebels and six soldiers were killed in the clash that erupted late Monday and lasted nearly 12 hours. The fighting took place 2 1/2 miles southeast of the center of Jaffna, the base of Tamil culture and the largest city in the north, where most of the country's minority Tamils live. The Tamils claim they face discrimination from the Sinhalese majority, which controls the government and the military. The Tamil rebels are fighting for a separate homeland in northern Sri Lanka, an Indian Ocean nation off India formerly known as Ceylon. More than 62,000 people have been killed since fighting erupted in 1983.