Lankan troops preparing major offensive: Tigers

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also called on Norwegian peace monitors to step and check the frontlines, the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website reported.

"We have reliable military intelligence that suggests that the Sri Lanka military is in full preparation to launch offensive operations into our territory," the LTTE's political wing leader SP Thamilselvan was quoted as saying.

"We want to ensure that we are not blamed for the outbreak of war as consequence to any Sri Lankan offensive," Thamilselvan said.

The area saw heavy fighting in August, which Nordic peace monitors said the Tigers initiated. After two weeks, the military regained territory lost to the guerrillas following intense fighting that claimed hundreds of lives of both sides.

There was no immediate reaction from the military to the latest LTTE allegations, but the defence ministry has maintained that it was engaged only in defensive operations.

The Tiger charge also followed heavy fighting in the east of the island.

The defence ministry said 12 government soldiers were missing Sunday following fierce fighting with Tamil rebels in the district of Batticaloa.

There were conflicting statements on casualties from the government and the LTTE after the skirmishes, which erupted Friday and carried on into the following day.

The rebels said they had recovered the bodies of 13 government soldiers and had taken another prisoner, but the defence ministry said only two soldiers were killed while a search operation was under way for the missing dozen.

Security forces said they had found the bodies of 12 Tamil Tiger rebels and estimated that 40 to 45 rebels were killed in the fighting. The rebels said only five of their fighters were killed.

The defence ministry also said that 23 soldiers were wounded during fighting in Batticaloa. However, a hospital in the adjoining district of Polonnaruwa said 55 government troopers were brought there for treatment.

Both the government and the Tigers have accused each other of triggering the latest fighting, which is seen by diplomats as a major setback to reviving peace talks.

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.

The government and the rebels did, however, agree on October 28 as the date for opening talks.

Officials said Norway's ambassador here, Hans Brattskar, was due to travel to the rebel-held town of Kilinochchi this week to try and secure agreement on a venue.

Sri Lanka wants talks to be held in Switzerland while the guerrillas want them in Oslo. Allies of the island's ruling party oppose Oslo, charging that Norway is biased in favour of the guerrillas.

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.