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By Sara Webb and Koh Gui Qing

SINGAPORE, June 3 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's foreign minister said on Sunday the government is not planning to scrap a 2002 ceasefire pact with the Tamil Tigers, and was willing to meet with the Tigers for talks as soon as possible.

A Sri Lankan defence spokesman had said on May 31 that the "flawed" ceasefire could be scrapped within weeks, as it did not reflect the situation on the ground.

"I categorically state that there is no decision taken to abrogate the CFA (ceasefire agreement). It is not necessary to consider that," Rohitha Bogollagama, the foreign affairs minister, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an Asian security conference in Singapore.

"We have always been encouraging them (the Tamil Tigers) to come for talks, and (the) likelihood is that talks will emerge soon," he said.

"We are ready for talks even today. If they can come for talks as early as this month, we will be happy, but we leave it for the LTTE to respond."

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for an independent state in the island's north and east, last met with the government for talks in October 2006, the minister said.

Defence spokesman and government minister Keheliya Rambukwella said on Thursday that the Norwegian-brokered truce -- which now holds only on paper after breaking down on the ground last year -- no longer reflected reality, citing Tamil Tiger ambushes and attacks on security forces.

For months, the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tigers have engaged in almost daily skirmishes as well as land and sea battles, while an estimated 4,000 people have been killed in the violence since last year.

The Tamil Tigers caught the military by surprise in March when they used light aircraft to bomb an air force base next to Sri Lanka's international airport north of Colombo.

It was the Tigers' first aerial attack, and they warned more air raids would follow: a month later, the Tigers launched another, bombing oil facilities near Colombo.

"They can (use) one single aircraft, and create some sensation," Bogollagama said. "But at the same time, we are very capable of meeting this challenge, and we will show that."

Bogollagama said there was room for the Tigers in Sri Lanka's governance if they stopped using violence.

"They can do well, and come through the democratic stream, and be engaged in the representation process in a pluralistic society, and be part and parcel of their own pursuits in their representative people," he said.

The minister told the International Institute for Strategic Studies' conference in Singapore that "the LTTE's capacity to be (a) threat to international shipping is clear," and said the violence threatened Sri Lanka's economic interests, including oil exploration off the northwest coast.

Sri Lanka has offered China and India one block each for exploration and has another six blocks which will go up for tender soon, Bogollagama told Reuters.

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