Sri Lanka's [Images] prime minister said on Monday that if elected president his top priority would be ending the protracted civil war with Tamil rebels and that he would be ready to meet with the insurgents' secretive leader to work out a peace deal.

Elections are due later in 2005 and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, the candidate of the ruling People's Alliance, told AP, "If I am elected, my biggest responsibility will be to end the conflict."

"I am not for war, I am totally against war," Rajapakse said in an interview at his fortified residence in Colombo.

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"I will be willing to meet anyone, including Prabhakaran," he said, referring to rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who on rare occasions emerges from hiding to meet with select foreign dignitaries.

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The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for minority ethnic Tamils, who are mainly Hindu, claiming discrimination by the largely Buddhist Sinhalese. Nearly 65,000 people were killed before a 2002 cease-fire largely stopped the fighting.

But subsequent peace talks broke down over the rebels' demand for greater autonomy in the country's north and east.

The president's race will pit Rajapakse against opposition candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe, who signed a cease-fire with the Tigers and started peace talks during his tenure as prime minister in 2001-2004.