By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI - Sri Lanka will accept a ship carrying aid cargo for thousands of war-displaced civilians, India's foreign minister said, reversing a decision to send it back amid suspicions that weapons were concealed in the consignment.

The Syrian-flagged Captain Ali was carrying 884 tonnes of relief supplies for Tamils displaced by the country's 25-year war when it was intercepted on June 4 by the Sri Lankan navy.

The aid cargo, paid for by expatriate Tamils, raised suspicion in Colombo because rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have a long history of using humanitarian groups as fundraising fronts.

Sri Lankan officials carried out a search of the ship and found no weapons.

While the ship floated in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka's neighbour India intervened, urging Colombo to receive the cargo of food and medicines.

Sri Lankan Tamils have historical and cultural links with about 60 million Tamils in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and their fate has political repercussions in India.

After talks with a high-level delegation from Colombo, Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna said Sri Lanka would now accept the cargo.

"I requested (from) the delegation that as a humanitarian gesture, the Sri Lankan government allows the ship Captain Ali to offload the relief items on board meant for IDPs in Northern Sri Lanka," Krishna was quoted as saying in a government statement released late on Wednesday.

The cargo will now be routed to Sri Lanka through the Indian Red Cross, the statement said.

U.K.-based Mercy Mission to the Vanni, which organised the ship, said it had failed to ensure the shipping documents were in order.

ASSURANCES

India -- home to about 60 million Tamils -- has begun re-engaging with the Sri Lankan government after a largely hands-off approach over the last two years as Colombo pursued a military end to the war, which ended in May.

New Delhi wants to see a political solution aimed at addressing the grievances of the Tamil minority, who say they have been marginalised by the Sinhalese-majority country.

Krishna said the visiting delegation had assured him that Colombo planned to implement a proposal to amend the constitution so that "considerable power" would be devolved to Sri Lankan provinces, including those with a Tamil majority.

Nearly 300,000 people, who were uprooted from their homes during the last phase of the fighting, are being held in government-run camps guarded by the military and from which people are not free to move.

There have been concerns that despite government claims to allow displaced Tamils to return home, authorities may seek to keep them in the camps citing that they are a security threat.

But Krishna said he was told that this would not happen.

"I was assured that the Sri Lankan Government will see to return IDPs to their homes, and to dismantle the camps in the timeframe of 180 days that they have indicated to us earlier," he was quoted as saying.

"India will be assisting in the resettlement and rehabilitation process and we are committed to helping in the demining activity which must be the first step to permit the safe return to home of the IDPs."