Sri Lankan officials met last month in New York with Ban and a panel that is studying how the UN should respond to the alleged crimes as government troops crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, the Sunday Times said.
In public, Sri Lanka has refused to recognise the three-member UN panel and accused the world body of interfering in its internal affairs.
"Sri Lankan delegation members were happy that the secretary-general as well as the panel gave them a satisfactory hearing," the report said. "Both sides kept the meeting secret."
There was no immediate comment either from the external affairs ministry or UN offices in Colombo.
The US has been leading international calls to probe the deaths of civilians in the final months of fighting between troops and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Troops wiped out the rebels in May 2009 ending decades of ethnic warfare on the island. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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