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Lankan rebels planning more attacks

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels are planning to intensify suicide and other attacks in the country, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Quoting an unidentified senior police official, the independent English-language Island newspaper said recently detained LTTE suspects had revealed rebel plans "to cause more death and destruction in the south" of the country.

"We are not talking about leaving small explosive devices in buses, but big blasts," the police official said.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment.

The newspaper report comes a few days before Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek arrives in Colombo to discuss possible efforts to end Sri Lanka's long-running ethnic war.

The Sri Lankan foreign ministry said last week that Vollebaek, who arrives on Wednesday for a one-day visit, will meet President Chandrika Kumaratunga and other politicians and officials.

The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east since 1983, and Tamil Tigers have been blamed for a number of recent attacks, suicide bombings and assassinations.

The newspaper said some 80 kg (176 pounds) of explosives and five other jackets packed with explosives ready for suicide bombers had been recovered in recent search operations near the northern town of Vavuniya, an important transit point for the rebels.

A series of explosions on public buses in recent weeks killed at least five people and injured more than 100 others.-Reuters