Simon Hughes, a Liberal Democrat MP who has been involved in negotiations between the Tamils and police, said last night that one of the men had agreed to suspend his hunger strike in order to travel to the UN in New York with Labour MP Des Browne, the government's special envoy for Sri Lanka.

Supporters feared that the pair, who only began sipping liquids again late on Thursday night, were close to renal failure. Prarameswaran Subramaniam, 28, was said last night to have agreed to begin taking liquids regularly while Sivatharsan Sivakumaraval, 21, had agreed to suspend his hunger strike to travel to New York.