Troops, Tigers accuse each other of attacks

The two sides are due to meet later in the month in Switzerland for talks aimed at averting a slide towards a resumption of the island's two decade civil war.

Violence had fallen since the two sides agreed to meet earlier in the year but has spiked again in recent days.

"They have fired at one of our observation posts," army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarsinghe said. "Two of our men were seriously injured."

Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) media co-ordinator Daya Master said the military had attacked a rebel position in the east early in the morning with 50 mm mortars, but that no rebels had been injured.

The military denied any involvement in the attack on the Tigers, and the rebels could not immediately be reached for comment regarding the later attack on an army checkpoint. Both incidents took place near the northeastern port of Trincomalee.

Each side accuses the other of failing to honour pledges made at the last round of talks in Geneva in February, where the government promised to disarm groups operating in their areas and the rebels pledged to avoid any military action.