AP
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, right, with Norwegian Ambassador Jon Westborg

A Scandinavian team is due to arrive in Sri Lanka Monday to start monitoring the cease-fire between Sri Lanka's government and Tamil rebels.

Norway brokered the cease-fire that went into effect Saturday, paving the way for the first direct peace talks in the island-nation in seven years. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has said preliminary talks may begin next month.

Some hard-liners from the country's Sinhalese majority have said they oppose the agreement, which they say gives too many concessions to the rebels.

The agreement was signed in the northern Sri Lankan town of Vavuniya Friday. Mr. Wickremesinghe, meeting with Sri Lankan soldiers, cautioned that the road to peace will not be easy.

Tamil rebels have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka, which has a Sinhalese majority. The war has killed more than 60,000 people.

Meanwhile, Norway's ambassador to Sri Lanka has called on the international community to give political and financial support to rebuild war-ravaged areas in Sri Lanka's north and east. The ambassador, Jon Westborg, says Sri Lanka also needs help in the southern part of the country, where economic development has virtually stopped due to huge war costs.

Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.

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