Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the UN chief, said at a news conference on Friday that Buhne was recalled earlier in the month because of the inability for the UN staff to carry on with their work due to the continued protests outside their office in Colombo.

The spokesman said Buhne return to Sri Lanka was prompted by the "changing circumstances in the country, which had allowed UN staff to return to work without the hindrance that they had faced earlier."

"It is important to continue UN efforts to assist the people of Sri Lanka, particularly with regard to reconstruction and rehabilitation in the North," the spokesman said, adding that the proper functioning of UN operations in Sri Lanka requires "positive cooperation" from the Sri Lankan government.

"Mr. Buhne will also convey the Secretary-General's strong expectations for a better treatment of the UN family in Sri Lanka, as well as for progress on the range of commitments covered in the Joint Statement of May 2009 including resettlement of internally displaced persons, political reconciliation and accountability," Haq added.

On 8th July, UN chief Ban Ki-moon had recalled Neil Buhne, his top envoy in Sri Lanka, and ordered the closing down of a UN office in the capital Colombo due to the continued protests over the setting up of a UN war crimes panel.

The development came just days after thousands of protesters led by Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa besieged the compound of the UN office in Colombo on 5th July, demanding the cancellation of the UN investigations into allegations of war crimes committed by the security forces during the country's recently concluded civil war.

The protesters had blocked the entrance and exits from the UN building, and prevented the UN staff from leaving the office. The UN staffers subsequently managed to leave the building with the assistance of police, who later ended their efforts to break the protest after the Sri Lankan government ordered them to do so.

The protesters were demanding that the U.N. scrap a three-member panel set up last month to investigate into allegations that human rights violations took place during the civil war that ended last year with the defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels.

Weerawansa even began an indefinite hunger-strike on 8th July to protest against the inquiry into alleged war crimes. Though he threatened to "fast till death" unless the accusations of war crimes are withdrawn and the UN cancels its investigations, the Minister ended his indefinite fast last Saturday after President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited him.

Last month, the UN had set up a three member independent panel led by former Indonesian Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman to investigate claims that government forces committed atrocities against minority Tamils during the final phase of the country's quarter-century civil war.(RTT)