Lanka talks at risk after fresh killing

The Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels scheduled for April could be at risk following Saturday's attack on a Tiger post by a suspected breakaway rebel faction.

"If such attacks and killings should reoccur, the SLMM fears that the next round of talks is put at stake," the outgoing SLMM chief Hagrup Haukland said in a statement.

Haukland, who is to be replaced shortly by a Danish military officer, urged all parties to uphold their commitments in a joint statement after their last round of talks in Switzerland last month.

Tiger rebels said security forces aided the attack that killed two of their members manning a checkpoint in the restive eastern province on Saturday.

The attack was the first since the peace talks in Switzerland at which the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) agreed to abide by a 2002 ceasefire.

"LTTE members at this post launched a counter attack and the attackers from the Sri Lanka army camp ran back," the LTTE said in a statement. "Ambulances were heard leaving the army camp soon after this incident."

The defence ministry denied any involvement and accused the Tigers of putting out a "meticulously fabricated" report.

The LTTE has said the government supports a breakaway rebel faction as its proxy for attacks on rebel-held areas in the north and east. The military denies the claim.

During talks in Switzerland last month, both the Tigers and Colombo agreed to stop a spate of killings since December that left at least 153 dead. The government also agreed that paramilitary units should be disarmed or disbanded.