Geneva, Feb. 22 (Reuters): Sri Lankan officials and top Tamil Tiger rebels began talks today aimed at shoring up a ceasefire and halting a slide back to war but a mediator said confidence between the sides was low.

Two days of talks got underway at a chateau outside Geneva and analysts said they would be deemed a success if confidence increased and a date was set for further negotiations.

The island’s Tamil-dominated north and east has largely been calm since the two sides agreed to meet but if the Geneva talks collapse many fear the end of a fragile 2002 truce and a return to a civil war which has killed more than 64,000 people.

“There is little confidence... between the two sides. Confidence can only increase, but it starts at a low level,” Norwegian envoy Erik Solheim, who brokered the meeting, told journalists.

The Tigers want a separate homeland for Tamils in north and east Sri Lanka where they already run a de facto state. They say the meeting, the first high-level direct talks since 2003, will decide if there is peace or renewed civil war.