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The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka has accepted responsibility for the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and apologized for it, according to New Delhi TV Tuesday.

"As far as that event is concerned, I would say it is a great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy for which we deeply regret and we call upon the Government of India and people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind and to approach the ethnic question in a different perspective," said Anton Balasingham, LTTE chief negotiator to the dialogue for peace with the government of Sri Lanka in an exclusive interview by the TV in an undisclosed location in Europe.

Asked whether LTTE's unhappiness over the accord between the two states led to the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Anton Balasingham said "No. It happened later on. What has happened is, since we rejected the Sri Lankan accord there were a lot of events that took place creating a gulf between the LTTE and the Government of India and the Indians later sent the Indian Peace Keeping Force to disarm the LTTE and eventually broke out into an open confrontation."

"We fought a guerrilla war against the Indian army for two years and finally the Sri Lankans. We had a negotiation with Sri Lanka and secured the withdrawal of the Indian troops and of course finally it was followed by the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi," Anton said.

Anton emphasized, "LTTE were not very happy with the political solution proposed by India because it did not satisfy the political aspirations of our people."

"If India has offered a federal solution as she has in her own country then we would have definitely responded positively, but the provincial administration suggested by India was totally inadequate to meet the demands of the Tamil people. So that's why we did not support the accord," he said.

Asked if the LTTE can give any sort of assurance to India that this kind of a thing won't happen again, Balasingham said, "we have made pledges to the government of India that under no circumstances we will act against the interest of the Indian Government."

But the Indian government rufused LTTE's apology for killing Rajiv Gandhi.

"The people of India cannot forget the dastardly crime that was committed by the LTTE," said Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma when interviewed by NDTV.

Responding to Balasingham's plea to India to show "magnanimity", Sharma said, "that would be tantamount to endorsing the philosophy of terror, violence and political assassination."

Rajiv Gandhi was killed at an election rally at Sriperumbudur near Chennai, capital of south India's Tamil Nadu, by a female suicide bomber on May 21, 1991. The LTTE had initially denied any involvement in the killing.

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2006)