India's Modi to Visit Sri Lanka's Tamil Heartland

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Sri Lanka's former war zone and Tamil heartland of Jaffna during a visit to the island this month, the government said Thursday.

Modi, who will also address parliament during his three-day visit, will be only the second foreign leader to visit Jaffna, the centre of bitter fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels seeking independence.

"The Indian prime minister will visit Jaffna and later address the Sri Lankan parliament too," Sri Lankan Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne told reporters in Colombo.

Modi's visit comes a month after Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena travelled to New Delhi to rebuild ties hit by tensions over growing Chinese influence on the strategically located island.

He will be the first Indian leader to address Sri Lanka's parliament since Moraji Desai in February 1979.

The first foreign leader to address Sri Lanka's legislature was Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1962 and he was followed by his prime minister daughter Indira Gandhi in April 1973.

Senaratne said Modi was also expected to visit the historic city of Anuradhapura, in the north-central part of the island during his March 13 - 15 visit.

Anuradhapura is home to Buddhism's holiest tree, which was brought to Sri Lanka from India over 2,500 years ago and attracts thousands of pilgrims every day.

British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Jaffna and held talks with local Tamil leaders on the sidelines of the Commonwealth summit hosted by former president Mahinda Rajapakse in November 2013.

The Tamil Tiger rebels fought for outright independence for their minority community until they were crushed by the army in May 2009.

Sri Lanka's new government has said it will focus on reconciliation after the decade-long war, which exposed deep ethnic divisions.

Sri Lanka's minority Tamils share close cultural ties with those in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.