“He was shot on his way to work,” said Rohan Abeywardene, police chief of the region. S. S. Rajan, 37, worked for the Sudar Oli newspaper in the port-town of Trincomalee.

“He used to cover news stories and write political columns,” said V. Danaraj, a shocked sub-editor at the newspaper’s head-office in Colombo.

Abeywardene said the assailant had fled the scene but police had commenced investigations.

In August, unidentified attackers hurled a grenade at the Sudar Oli office in Colombo, killing one person and injuring three others.

Discuss this story Published: Mon Jan 23 23:27:08 EST 2006

Assuring support to protect Sri Lanka's territorial integrity Burn's said, "the people of this country ought not to have to live for another 15 or 20 years with this reprehensible terrorist group keeping this country verged on the edge of war."

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, better known as the LTTE, have been banned in the U.S. since 1997 as a terrorist group, along with the Al-Qaeda.

Burns said the U.S. understood that Sri Lanka's 3.2 million minority Tamils had genuine grievances that must be respected by the majority Sinhalese population. But the path to choose is peace instead of the LTTE's "reprehensible policies."

Asked why the U.S. was fighting Al Qaeda while promoting negotiations with the Tamil Tigers, Burns said, "Al Qaeda is a terrorist organization that has no grievances whatsoever to negotiate … It's a nihilistic terrorist organization that uses terrorism for reprehensible aims. "

In a tough warning to the rebels Burns said the onus now lies with the Tigers, "which has taken up terrorism and violence as its political weapon," to resume peace talks with the Sri Lankan government.

He expressed hope that Norway International Development Minister and top peace envoy Erik Solheim, will be able to break the ice between the parties and arrive at a date and place for talks.

Even as the top diplomats launched a crucial push for peace in the island, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated a claymore mine in Sri Lanka's restive eastern town of Batticaloa.

Three soldiers on a foot patrol were killed in the ambush that injured three others. A subsequent grenade attack in the same area injured a policemen. The fresh violence mounted the spate of attacks that has killed more than 100 people in recent weeks, mostly government security forces. The rebels continue to deny involvement and accuse the government of killings and harassing Tamil civilians.

The latest attacks took place barely hours after Solheim touched-down in the island to save an almost four-year cease-fire he brokered, from collapse. "I must remind you, even horrible as they are, these violations of the cease-fire are short of all out war," Solheim told reporters, ahead of a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapakse on Tuesday.

Solheim is scheduled to meet LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran on Wednesday, in the northern rebel-capital of Kilinochchi. The rebels' chief ideologue London-based Anton Balasingham also arrived Monday to aid in the talks

"Everyone is worried about the deteriorating security situation," said Solheim , who has played a pivotal role in the process since 1998. "The key issue is to stop the killings and stabilize the cease-fire. That is what I will try to achieve for this visit."

Solheim also hopes to break a deadlock between the parties over the venue for talks. The rebels insisted that any meeting had to take place in Oslo. Colombo, which has shown some flexibility, now hopes that the Tigers will be agreeable to any other European destination with the exception of Oslo and the 25 European Union nations where there's a travel restriction on the rebels.

The Tamil Tigers began fighting in 1983 to carve out an independent homeland for the island's 3.2 million Tamil minority, who claim discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The fighting killed nearly 65,000 before Norway brokered a cease-fire in February 2002. But subsequent peace talks collapsed in April 2003 amid rebel demands for wide autonomy in the Tamil-dominated north and east. Despite international pressure, efforts to revive the talks have failed, and the unprecedented violence in recent weeks has prompted European truce monitors to warn that an outbreak of war was not far off.

Discuss this story Published: Mon Jan 23 11:56:44 EST 2006

At least three soldiers were killed and two injured in the blast in Urani, about three kilometers from the town, said Rohan Abeywardene, police chief in the area.

He said the soldiers were on a foot patrol when the explosion occurred. Clearing operations were in progress.

Anton Balasingham, the LTTE ideologue arrived from London early Monday, and headed to Kilinoochchi at the break of light.

He was accompanied by representatives from the Norwegian embassy and the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission amid fears that the air force helicopter may be shot down on its return.

Discuss this story Published: Sun Jan 22 23:01:26 EST 2006