Sri Lanka keeps up attacks against Tamil Tigers

Sri Lankan troops have kept up attacks against Tamil Tiger rebels, a day after both sides said they had inflicted heavy losses.

Military officials say air attacks against the rebels have continued amid sporadic exchanges in the eastern district of Batticaloa, where heavy fighting erupted on Friday.

About 50 soldiers wounded on Friday were brought to the nearby Polonnaruwa hospital, hospital officials said, and the military said it had killed at least 22 guerrillas.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said only five rebels were killed.

The Tigers said they had recovered the bodies of 13 government soldiers and that another soldier was taken alive.

"The large scale offensive comes at a time when the co-chairs have called on the parties to halt all violence and come for unconditional direct talks and the LTTE has responded positively to that call," they said.

The co-chairs group comprises the United States, the European Union, Japan and Norway, which last month asked Sri Lanka's warring parties to enter peace talks early this month or risk losing international support.

The military accused the Tigers of triggering the renewed fighting.

"Security forces are experiencing provocative actions from the Tigers despite the assurances given by them few days ago [to enter talks]," the Defence Ministry said.

The latest flare-up came a day after Norway's peace envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, left the island after failing to seal an agreement on a site to resume peace negotiations between the two sides.

Peace negotiations aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed came to a halt in April 2003 when the Tigers pulled out.

Some 60,000 people have been killed in the separatist conflict since 1972.

- AFP