The Ceylon News

With the humanitarian situation worsening in Sri Lanka's northern war zone, the Obama Administration recently held an interagency meeting to review the situation in the island nation where the military offensive against the LTTE is coming to an end.

The interagency meeting - the first if its kind for Sri Lanka - is believed to have taken place later last week, which was attended by senior officials from the State Department, Pentagon, National Security Council, USAID, and several other agencies, a senior White House official told.

Officials familiar with the meeting said this indicates that the US is taking the current situation in Sri Lanka very seriously, wherein both the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE had repeatedly refrained from heeding to its call of protecting the civilians trapped in the armed conflict.

While US President Barack Obama has been receiving latest update on the situation in Sri Lanka as part of his daily presidential briefing, it is unlikely that he had any special briefing on the island nation. However, officials said the White House is closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the State Department said it was "very encouraged" by the Sri Lankan Government's statement that it's ending combat operations and use of heavy weaponry.