COLOMBO -- The Sri Lankan government has extended a one-month cease-fire, matching a similar truce by Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate state, Norway said in a Statement, raising further hopes of peace talks.

The statement, issued late on Sunday in Oslo, said Sri Lanka had "Requested the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs to make public that the government of Sri Lanka is extending their unilateral cease-fire up to February 24th..."

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also announced on Sunday that it had extended a unilateral cease-fire due to expire on Thursday night.

Hopes of talks to end nearly two decades of ethnic fighting have surged since the election of a pro-peace government in December, with both sides inviting Norway to revive its role as a go-between.

The Norwegian statement said Sri Lanka had extended the truce "...in order to provide Norway time to facilitate a mutually agreed cease-fire between the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam".

The cease-fire, first declared for one month from December 24, is the first time in seven years both sides have observed a truce at the same time, with both also saying they were working to formalize the truce.

"We have decided to extend the truce for another month as a gesture of peace and goodwill and also to provide further space and time for the Norwegian facilitators to work out terms and conditions for a mutually agreed structured cease-fire," the LTTE said in a statement.

Hopes of direct peace talks have increased since the election six weeks ago of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has also met another LTTE demand by easing an economic embargo on rebel-held areas. -------------------------------------------------- -------

An estimated 64,000 people have died in the conflict which has also smothered Sri Lanka's economy, and in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States thrust the actions of the LTTE into the international spotlight. wickremesinghe campaigned on a pledge to open peace talks quickly. his matching of the earlier truce was in sharp contrast to the previous people's alliance government, which launched an offensive in december 2000 just hours after the tigers declared a similar holiday cease-fire. a similar peace bid foundered last year amid haggling over conditions between the ltte and the people's alliance, including a tiger demand that a ban on the group be lifted. the ltte repeated the demand last week, but the government said it has not received an official request, adding it was a matter that would have to be considered later.