Lanka steps up attacks amid fears for truce

Military officials said security forces stepped up artillery attacks against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the northeast district of Trincomalee where the rebels have blocked an irrigation canal.

"There have been no air attacks so far today, but artillery and mortar bombs have been directed at identified LTTE targets," a military official in the area said by telephone.

The defence ministry said the attacks were aimed at ending a Tiger blockade of the canal that had deprived thousands of farmers of water.

"The security forces are currently engaged in a limited operation with a clearly defined objective of securing water supplies to the civilian population," the ministry said in a statement.

Sri Lankan warplanes bombed Tamil Tiger positions for four straight days Wednesday through Saturday, despite a ceasefire since February 2002.

The violence, part of an escalation between the rebels and the government that erupted after presidential elections in November 2005, has led some of the Nordic countries monitoring the ceasefire to withdraw from the Swedish-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

The LTTE has demanded that observers from European Union members Finland, Denmark and Sweden leave the island after the EU added it to a list of "terrorist" organisations in May.

That would leave only Norwegian and Icelandic monitors.

Finland and Denmark announced on Friday they would pull out by the end of August. Sweden has yet to announce its position.

Meanwhile, a regional Tamil Tiger leader asked the monitors Sunday to declare the troubled truce was officially over following the aerial bombing campaign.

"It is now appropriate for the SLMM to declare publicly that the ceasefire agreement is not holding anymore on the ground," S. Elilan told the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website.

He said the rebels had also written to the LTTE requesting the move.

Under the February 2002 deal brokered by Norway, the truce can be terminated by the Tigers or the Sri Lankan government with a written declaration to quit in two weeks.

Neither have officially said they want out of the truce although both have repeatedly accused the other of violations.

Two policemen were shot dead in Trincomalee on Friday by suspected Tiger gunmen, police said, pushing the death toll since violence flared in December to at least 910.

Peacebroker Norway is to send special envoy Jon Hansse-Bauer to Colombo next month to try to salvage the ceasefire, diplomats said.

Britain's deputy high commissioner Lesley Craig met the Tiger leadership in the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi on Friday and asked them to honour the ceasefire and move towards negotiations, the high commission (embassy) said.