COLOMBO -- The Sri Lankan government has extended the term of Colombo's Norwegian ambassador despite protests by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, officials said Wednesday.

A statement from the Foreign Ministry said the term of Jon Westborg, who was due to leave his post in January, had been extended, AFP reported.

Kumaratunga in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Bondevik in December had lodged a formal protest against Westborg and questioned Norway's "impartiality" as a peace broker between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Westborg was accused of violating Sri Lanka's customs regulations and diplomatic norms by being the "consignee" for radio transmitting equipment ordered by the LTTE in October.

Kumaratunga's letter had come despite Wickremesinghe's government clearing Westborg and the Norwegian Embassy here of any wrongdoing.

"In response to a request for the continuation of his term of office a further period has been granted due to his involvement in the peace process. Ambassador Jon Westborg is expected to continue until around April," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

The government and the LTTE entered into a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in February last year and a fourth round of peace talks aimed at ending decades of ethnic bloodshed is currently taking place in Thailand.

Kumaratunga had initially invited Oslo to be a peace broker with Tamil Tiger rebels in 1999, but began opposing the handling of the peace process after her party lost parliamentary elections. She remains president until 2005.

A Marxist Party which propped up her government for a brief period in 2001 had asked Kumaratunga to expel Westborg, who has been in Sri Lanka for more than five years and is a key figure in Oslo's attempts to broker peace here.