Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that Sri Lanka was seeking a delay of several months in the release of a U.N. report on alleged war crimes during the civil war, until the government had time to establish a mechanism to deal with the issue.

In March last year, the U.N. Human Rights Council voted to look into reports of abuses during the Sri Lankan civil war, saying the Sri Lankan government had failed to investigate properly. The U.N. report is due out on March 25.

“Once the report is finalized, we are hoping they can refer it to our domestic mechanism for action,” Samaraweera told reporters during a visit to Washington. “We are hoping they could hold on to it until our mechanism is in place – maybe August, you know, or so.”

Reuters reported that U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville declined to comment when asked about the possibility of a delay in the report, but when pressed, said it was still scheduled for release on March 25.

(With inputs from The West Australian)