It is unclear if the bodies were actually displayed. Sri Lanka's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was trying to determine if the display had happened and was also seeking to recover the four men's bodies.

Saudi officials would not confirm that the body display had happened but did confirm the four were executed. They also confirmed that the court order issued in the case had called for the men's bodies to be strung up after execution. Several newspapers in Riyadh reported the bodies were strung up, but The Associated Press could not independently confirm this.

Victor Gorea, Ranjith Silva, Sanath Pushpakumara, and Shamila Sangeeth Kumara were executed for committing a number of armed robberies. Both Gorea and Pashpakumara leave behind two children.

Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of Islam under which persons convicted of murder, drug trafficking, rape and armed robbery are executed in public with a sword.

The beheaded bodies are rarely put on display and only when there is a specific court order in cases considered particularly offensive to the society, such as armed robbery.

The four men were convicted of ``forming a criminal gang which robbed a number of companies and threatened accountants and workers with weapons, shooting one of them and stealing his car,'' the official Saudi Press Agency had reported on Monday, citing an interior ministry statement.

In the lead up to the execution, the prisoners had converted their religion from Buddhist to Muslim when they were told it would earn them a reprieve, a sister of one of the prisoners said in a telephone interview on Wednesday. Her claim could not be independently confirmed.

``The Saudis said if you become Muslim we will change the punishment, he became a Muslim, but they didn't change it,'' said the sister, who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case. ``We begged ... that it not be that punishment, but they didn't listen. They just said they can't give us the body.''

The Sri Lanka government said in a media release it had appealed to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for clemency twice, first by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga and subsequently by President Mahinda Rajapakse.

A report by Amnesty International said that besides the execution of the four Sri Lankans, six other foreigners _ three Pakistanis, two Iraqis and one Nigerian _ have been executed so far this year, along with seven Saudi Arabians, including one woman. In 2006, 86 men and two women were executed, half of them foreign nationals, the report said.

The Saudi judicial system neglects to notify the accused's family of the legal proceedings against their kin and ``confessions'' are often obtained under duress, with trials held behind closed doors and the defendants without legal representation, the Amnesty report also said.

This week, the oil-rich country came under blistering criticism from a New York based rights watchdog which conducted a four-week mission to the kingdom that started in December.

The report by Human Rights Watch documented unfair trials, detention of children, oppression of women and foreign laborers. A Saudi human rights activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the country also remains plagued by extremists who dominate midlevel positions in the police and judiciary.

jc-kkDiscuss this story Published: Wed Feb 21 15:36:37 EST 2007

New Delhi has banned the Tigers as a terrorist organization, but they still enjoy some sympathy among India's 56 million Tamils, most of whom live in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu along the 32-kilometer- (20-mile-) Palk Strait and have either family or traditional ties with Sri Lankan Tamils.

Last week, Sri Lanka - 's navy destroyed two boats thought to have been ferrying bomb-making materials from India to Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka - . The navy said its divers retrieved 28 bags filled with tens of thousands of steel balls from the sunken boats. Such balls are used in roadside bombs a favored weapon of the Tigers.

Divers also recovered an automatic rifle, ammunition and a satellite phone from the two boats, the navy said.

On Feb. 14, India's navy and coast guard said they seized two caches of weapons and explosive-making material from a boat believed destined for the rebels and detained five people.

``The Indian media quoted a senior Indian official as saying that this could be the tip of the iceberg,'' Rambukwella said. ``We want a bit more help to break the iceberg.''

Officials at India's embassy in Colombo were not immediately available to comment.

The Tigers claim to be fighting on behalf of Sri Lanka - 's minority Tamil population who have suffered decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese-dominated state. Violence in the north and east has escalated since last year, when a Norwegian-brokered 2002 cease-fire nearly collapsed.

The government says it is willing to give autonomy to areas where Tamils are in the majority, but the rebels insist on sweeping changes that the government says would infringe on the country's sovereignty.Discuss this story Published: Wed Feb 21 07:57:44 EST 2007