"Having considered the proposals by the Norwegian facilitators the government has agreed that the talks could take place in Switzerland on the 28th and 29th October in Switzerland," Dr. Palitha Kohona Secretary General of the Sri Lankan Government's Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP) told the BBC Sandeshaya on Thursday.

Dr. Kohona said that the government would like to discuss "substantive" issues.

He said that the government is willing to consider a federal solution within a united and undivided Sri Lanka while adding that the authorities reserved the right to respond if the rebels continued any military actions.

The secretary general says that the Norwegians brought a message "from the LTTE leadership".

Earlier the Sri Lankan government insisted that the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran himself should vouch for the commitment to peace.

The LTTE said that they are waiting to receive the government proposal formally through the Norwegian facilitators.

"We are to meet the Norwegian facilitators on Monday," Secretary General of the LTTE Peace secretariat Seevaratnam Puleedevan told BBCSinhala.com.

The Tamil Tigers have already said the date and venue for talks is in the hands of the Norwegian facilitators.

Norwegian special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer has been meeting with both parties to push them into dialogue.

BBC's Colombo correspondent says that there's a mood of optimism, but still valid questions of sincerity that go beyond the moment of euphoria.