The Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, turned down a Norwegian proposal for a joint signing ceremony.
ECONOMIST: The Norwegians settle down to a long haul as peacemakers
No one seems to take issue with Mr Prabhakaran, whose picture adorns most shops.
But nor were the Tamil Tigers, under their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, any more trusting.
In the early days of the Jayasikuru offensive, Prabhakaran appeared to take the bait.
Unlikely: Mr Prabhakaran has vowed not to negotiate from a position of weakness.
Mr Prabhakaran himself is said to set demanding standards for the number of students who must pass state exams.
Some Sri Lankans are already shaking their heads over what they see as early evidence of Mr Prabhakaran's likely intransigence.
ECONOMIST: The Norwegians settle down to a long haul as peacemakers
Mr Prabhakaran says Mr Wickremesinghe, and mediation by Norway, have improved the odds that the latest peace process will work.
What prevents compromise, apart from Mr Prabhakaran's fanaticism, is what might be called a dynamic stalemate between the two armies.
Now Prabhakaran is holding his forces back, instead "pounding us whenever we try to move forward, " says a military source.
Colombo had calculated that Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran would throw his guerrillas at the army to prevent it breaking through the road.
But Mr Prabhakaran has rejected more generous offers in the past.
Amid warnings of a humanitarian crisis as rebels gradually lost ground to advancing government forces, the army finally succeeded in defeating the Tigers, killing their leader Prabhakaran.
Her political future and that of the island are intricately linked to a peaceful resolution of the question of Tamil ethnicity that Prabhakaran so forcefully included in Sri Lanka's political agenda.
This month, Yasushi Akashi, a special envoy from Japan, had to cancel a planned peace mission to Sri Lanka when Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Tigers' elusive and ruthless supremo, refused to meet him.
Some Sri Lankans were particularly annoyed that Mr Patten's meeting with Mr Prabhakaran coincided with the latter's birthday, and came on the eve of Martyrs' Day - the Tigers' annual celebration of their struggle.
But assuming it does fall - and few doubt that it will - what then will be the next step of the Tamil Tiger leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who has run his organisation over the years with a vice-like grip?
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