Aust asylum patrol boats for Sri Lanka

AUSTRALIA will give two retired navy patrol boats to Sri Lanka in a bid to crack down on people smugglers.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Sunday will visit a Colombo port to meet Sri Lankan navy officials and government members and tour a patrol boat.

"Australia appreciates its strong co-operative relationship with Sri Lanka in countering people smuggling," Mr Abbott said.

This year 14 asylum seeker boats have travelled directly from Sri Lanka to Australia, compared with 120 in 2012.

The prime minister said the Sri Lankan navy was getting better at disrupting people smugglers, with at least 12 on-water interceptions in 2013.

And a communication campaign in local villages was convincing people that "illegal entry by boat will never lead to resettlement in Australia", Mr Abbott said.

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa is using his role as host of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting this weekend to show the world, and his own people, that economic and social conditions are improving.

But human rights advocates say basic freedoms and the rule of law are routinely breached and minorities are still persecuted.

Sri Lanka is also under pressure to allow an independent inquiry into state-sanctioned abuses against its Tamil minority as well as war crimes including the killing of tens of thousands of civilians during its 2009 defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels.

Mr Abbott has urged Commonwealth leaders to engage with rather than isolate Sri Lanka as it seeks to rebuild from three decades of war.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who visited the island's Tamil-led north on Friday told reporters the summit should not shy away from controversial topics.

"I think it's right to confront and discuss the difficult issues, the human rights issues, journalistic-freedom issues, importance of reconciliation," Mr Cameron said.

"But I think we do that not by gliding over the difficult issues."

Mr Cameron praised Mr Abbott as a "politician of immense stature and ability".

Meanwhile, Commonwealth leaders will have to decide on hosts for consecutive forthcoming CHOGMs after 2015 host Mauritius pulled out.

The Mauritian prime minister Navin Ramgoolam, who boycotted the Colombo summit over Sri Lanka's human rights record, said he could not in good conscience host other leaders having not attended the 2013 event.

There is also a push to return Fiji to the fold, after it was suspended from the Commonwealth over the 2006 coup.

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