VATICAN CITY, April 20 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict spoke with Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday about the need to respect human rights and resume dialogue following a recent intensification of the island's two-decade-old civil war. The Vatican said both the Pontiff and Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, met with Rajapaksa, whose majority-Sinhalese government is pushing ahead with a plan to destroy all of the military assets of the Tamil Tiger rebels. The Tigers have vowed to fight on for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east. Nearly 70,000 people have been killed since 1983, and more than 4,000 have died since 2005 when a ceasefire began to unravel. The Vatican called the situation dramatic and said the church in Sri Lanka would "intensify the delicate effort to shape consciousness" in favour of peace. Sri Lanka is mainly Buddhist and about seven percent are Christian. "The need to respect human rights and resume the path of dialogue and negotiations (was confirmed in talks) as the only road to end violence bloodying the island," the Vatican said. The Pope has repeatedly spoken about Sri Lanka in recent weeks. In his Easter message, the German Pontiff said that "only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict".
