Colombo  - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Friday assured a visiting UN envoy that arrangements would be made to complete the resettlement of some
250,000 displaced civilians by end of January.

UN Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe visited refugees displaced by the civil war between the government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and pressed authorities to speed up their release from the government-controlled camps.

Rajapaksa said resettlement depended on progress in de-mining the areas affected by the civil war, a statement released by his office said. The government initially said it wanted to resettle 70 per cent by 180 days after the end of the war in May.

Rajapaksa was hopeful to complete the entire resettlement by the end of January.

"We have identified areas for resettlement and the people will be sent back no sooner than they are cleared," he said.

Despite the assurances, opposition parties are concerned that the Tamil refugees are still held in the camps under increasingly difficult conditions.

Pascoe, after visiting camps in northern Sri Lanka, on Thursday told journalists that the displaced should be released as soon as possible. "No one should be kept in such conditions longer than necessary," he said.

People did not want to live cramped in tiny tents or other shelters, he said.

"The people have to go back to their homes and begin normal lives," the UN envoy added.

Sri Lanka's armed forces carried out a three-year campaign against the Tamil Tigers, ending 26 years of civil war in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, which claimed over 100,000 lives.(dpa)