Rebel Tamil negotiators arrived in Sri Lanka's capital on Wednesday after failed peace talks in Geneva and met briefly with diplomats before heading to their northern base, government officials said.
Diplomats from the EU, Norway and Japan, who have brokered the peace process, met the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) team at the international airport, said diplomatic sources who declined to discuss details.
The team's return home came after two days of peace talks with the government ended Sunday in Geneva with a failure to end almost a year of violence that has claimed more than 3,000 lives, despite a cease-fire.
The two sides failed to agree on a new meeting, or how to deal with crucial "humanitarian issues" such as opening a road to bring food and other supplies to the northern city of Jaffna.
The failure has renewed fears of full-scale hostilities breaking out on the island for the first time since 2001.
Both sides continue to accuse the other of launching unprovoked attacks along a de facto frontier on the Jaffna Peninsula and in the rebel stronghold in Sri Lanka's east.
The conflict is Asia's longest and bloodiest separatist war, claiming more than 60,000 lives since the LTTE launched its bid for Tamil independence in 1972.