MANILA, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government is willing to resume peace talks with Tamil rebels as long as they end violence, its foreign minister said on Thursday. Rohitha Bogollagama told a news conference in Manila his government has not abandoned moves to end civil war through political negotiations but asked the rebels to show sincerity. "We can resume talks tomorrow," Bogollagama told reporters at a news conference after attending an Asian security forum. "They should stop violence and give up terrorism." Sri Lanka became the 27th participant of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum during its 14th annual meeting in Manila on Thursday. The government of the South Asian island republic has been fighting a civil war with rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for over two decades. The rebels have ruled out peace while President Mahinda Rajapaksa is in office. A ceasefire still exists on paper but at least 4,500 people have been killed since last year alone over the war for an independent Tamil homeland. Since 1983, the fighting has killed nearly 70,000 people. Bogollagama asked ARF members, particularly India, China, Australia, Japan and the United States, to help his country police its maritime borders to prevent smuggling of people, drugs and weapons. In 1995, he said Tamil rebels sent weapons to the Abu Sayyaf, an Islamic militant group in the southern Philippines, through contacts with an al Qaeda cell based in Pakistan. Bogollagama said Sri Lankan rebels continued to move weapons in and out of country using its fleet of small boats, but Colombo was able to destroy some of these vessels during the last two years. "They have attacked on land and from the skies, they're now moving into attacking in the waters," he told reporters, adding terrorist attacks on ships could damage the global economy.
