A sailor onboard the navy vessel was also seriously wounded in the blast about 10 nautical miles off Thalaimannar.

The navy had spotted multi-day fishing trawler with at least four people on board heading toward towards Vedithaltivu _ a Tamil rebel-controlled area, navy official in Thalaimannar said on condition of anonymity.

"There had to be a large quantity of explosives on board for such an explosion to take place," said Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe, military spokesman.

"This is a terrorist act," he said but stopped short of saying the trawler was a LTTE vessel.

Last month , the navy intercepted an Indian fishing boat smuggling some 60,000 detonators along the same route.

Saturday's incident took place as the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels prepared to resume talks to save a faltering cease-fire.

Escalating tension between the parties significantly dropped after peace-broker Norway clinched a deal for the parties to meet on Feb. 22 for talks in Geneva. It was not immediately clear if the latest incident would affect the prospective negotiations.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had been fighting since 1983 for a separate state in the island's north and east for the island's 3.2 minority Tamils. Nearly 65,000 people were killed before Norway brokered a cease-fire on Feb. 22, 2002. Subsequent peace talks broke down a year later over rebel demands for wide autonomy.

Discuss this story Published: Sat Feb 11 10:14:33 EST 2006

The minority Muslim legislators represented in parliament are to meet on Feb. 14 to decide on a Muslim representative to attend the Geneva talks, party sources said.

This followed an announcement by the President Mahinda Rajapakse's office on Friday that Rajapakse had asked the Muslim parties to nominate their representative.

MT Hasan Ali, the Secretary of the main Muslim political party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), however, said the need was for a separate Muslim delegation and not just a Muslim representative.

The government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are to meet in Geneva on Feb. 22-23, the first direct talks between the two warring parties for three years. The objective is to discuss the fragile Norwegian backed ceasefire.

Muslims have a bigger stake in the process particularly in the multi-ethnic eastern province.

Muslims have often complained of harassment by the LTTE in the eastern province.

The SLMC has been clamoring for representation as a separate Muslim entity in any of the future negotiations.

But the government sources say that one of the three Muslim ministers in the Rajapakse administration may be given the honor of representing the Muslim community.

The second meeting of political party consultations on Geneva talks is to take place on Feb. 17, which will be Rajapakse's consultations with all the political parties represented in parliament, officials said. More...

Discuss this story Published: Sat Feb 11 12:56:45 EST 2006

Navy patrol crafts spotted a suspicious fishing vessel and went to investigate in the sea of Talaimannar, 250 kilometers (155 miles) northwest of Colombo, when the explosion occurred, the official said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Published: Sat Feb 11 10:05:57 EST 2006