The US has redesignated the Tamil Tigers a "foreign terrorist organisation" only hours before the group's leaders were due in Dublin to prepare for peace talks.
The leaders of the rebel group, known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were due in Dublin yesterday for talks with Sri Lankan government officials, aimed at producing a Northern Ireland type of agreement. They have been fighting for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, discussed the situation with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka when he was at the UN in New York last week.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said yesterday: "The Minister did discuss the possibility of facilitating these LTTE talks when he was in New York last week. The Minister discussed it with Sri Lankan government ministers. That is all I can say."
Asked if the group had arrived in Dublin, the spokesman said he could not make any comment.
Late on Thursday Irish time, the US State Department announced that the Tamil Tigers were to be relisted as a "foreign terrorist organisation" along with the "Real IRA" and other terrorist groups around the world.
The State Department spokesman, Mr Richard Boucher, said the Tamil Tigers continued to commit acts of terrorism even while engaged in a peace process with the Sri Lankan government.
The "Real IRA" has been redesignated as one of 11 terrorist groups whose status will be reviewed next year.
The LTTE has been on the list since 1997, and its leaders are not allowed to travel to the US or raise finance or support in the country.
"Although the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are engaged in a peace process with the government of Sri Lanka - a process that the United States fully supports - the US has determined that the LTTE continues to engage in terrorist activities," Mr Boucher said.
While on the week-long trip to Dublin, the group's leaders are expected to meet South African constitutional experts and learn about the institutions of the Northern Ireland government set up under the Belfast Agreement.
The Sri Lankan government has approved the Dublin visit and provided helicopter transport to bring the Tamil leaders to the international airport in the capital, Colombo.
One of the leaders reportedly said he hoped to learn from the Irish peace process. "We would hope to be having discussions with Irish experts who were associated with the peace process in Ireland," Tamil newspapers quoted him as saying.
" The Irish have also struggled for their rights like us. Their experience and knowledge will help us better understand the intricacies of negotiating peace."