Sri Lanka exhorts UN to postpone release of war crime report

New foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera has reportedly asked the United Nations (UN) to delay the release of a report on atrocities in Sri Lanka's civil war by saying that the nation needed time to set up mechanisms to deal with any recommendations in the report.

Samaraweera urged the UN to defer the report's release, due to take place on March 25, until August, reported the BBC.

The UN rights commissioner's investigation is expected to document war crimes committed by the Tamil Tigers and government forces. A previous report prepared by the agency had estimated that nearly 40,000 civilians were killed in the final phase alone, mostly by government shelling.

The UN launched an investigation last April, saying that there had been "an absence of a credible national process with tangible results."

Tamil rebels waged a battle for 26 years for a separate homeland but the rebellion was crushed in 2009 after the government launched a massive operation.

Both sides have been accused of killing civilians during the civil war.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa had refused to grant visas to the UN investigators, saying that such an inquiry could only be conducted by Sri Lankans.

The new dispensation, which replaced the Rajapaksa regime after last month's general election, promised to co-operate with the UN.

However, UN officials have said that no changes have been made to the timetable for the report's release as of now.