Sri Lanka rejects British envoy
Sri Lanka is rejecting Britain's decision to appoint a special envoy to look at the humanitarian problems in the north-eastern war zone and to help find a lasting solution to the country's ethnic conflict.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his cabinet said in a statement that the appointment was an intrusion into the country's domestic affairs and said Britain had not consulted Sri Lanka beforehand.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has named former defence secretary Des Browne to be his Sri Lanka envoy.
The Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting since 1983 for a separate Tamil state in the north-east.
The war has killed more than 70,000 people.