Lanka boosts security ahead of election

Sri Lanka's two-decade civil war was halted by a 2002 truce, but relations between the government and the rebels are at their lowest ebb since then amid continued violence in the island's east, which is piling pressure on the ceasefire.

Kumaratunga lost an eye in the 1999 bombing, which political analysts say stirred a sympathy vote that helped her defeat main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is set to go head to head with Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse in a Nov. 17 vote.

"The Prime Minister has ... been provided a contingent of trained and experienced personnel from the Presidential Security Division," Kumaratunga's office said in a statement, adding that both candidates had been given additional security and vehicles.

Rajapakse has pledged to take a tough line on the Tigers if elected and has ruled out their demands for a separate homeland and self-rule, which political analysts say makes him the Tigers' No.1 foe.

Sri Lanka is already under a state of emergency following the August assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, which the government blames on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The European Union last month condemned Kadirgamar's murder and barred the Tigers from visiting its member states, saying it was considering listing the group as a terrorist organisation.

How to forge peace with the Tigers is a central election issue that is overshadowing efforts to jumpstart stalled efforts to convert the truce into permanent peace.

However, observers expect the ceasefire to hold, and say that any return to a full-scale war that killed more than 64,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more from their homes is unlikely.