``I regret the government is taking this serious step,'' said Erik Solheim, Norway's environment and international development minister. ``I am deeply concerned that the violence and hostilities will now escalate even further.''

Sri Lanka announced its plan to formally withdraw from the accord yesterday, saying the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam had used the cease-fire to rearm, recruit and prepare further attacks on the South Asian island. The announcement came hours after a bomb attack targeting an army bus in the capital, Colombo, killed four people and wounded 28 others.

The Tamil Tigers, designated a terrorist group by the U.S., the European Union and India, have been fighting for 24 years in a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people. Fighting has intensified in the country's north and east after two rounds of peace talks in 2006 failed. There was no immediate response to the government's announcement on the LTTE's Web site. More... Discuss this story Published: Wed Jan 2 22:26:48 EST 2008

"Air Force fighter jet planes pounded on a LTTE supply centre at Alampilli in (rebel-held) Mulaithivu this afternoon," it said adding, "the LTTE supply centre was completely destroyed."

In another incident, it said, the air force jets hit a sea Tiger base and an LTTE intelligence centre at Wedithalathvu in North-western Mannar in the morning.

"It has been confirmed that two LTTE leaders were killed in the incident," the Ministry said.

The Pro-LTTE website Tamilnet quoting "Tamileelam police officials" claimed two civilians were wounded on Wednesday in Alamipili in More... Published: Wed Jan 2 20:42:33 EST 2008

The move would mean that the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, an independent Nordic group tasked with monitoring the hostilities, would have to pull out because it would have lost its mandate.

The withdrawal would also formalize a renewed state of violence between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, which analysts have called an ``undeclared civil war.''

According to the agreement signed in February 2002 between then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the Tamil Tiger rebels' reclusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran either side must give 14-days' notice before officially withdrawing from the truce.

Sri Lanka's current Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake proposed to the Cabinet the annulment of the nearly six-year-old truce and it was approved unanimously, cabinet spokesman and Media Minister Anura Yapa told The Associated Press.

``Today it was proposed to the Cabinet by the honorable prime minister that the cease-fire is no longer valid and it's time to withdraw from the cease-fire agreement,'' he said.

``All the ministers agreed to the proposal.''

Wickramanayake will soon formally notify peace broker Norway about the government's decision to pull out of the agreement, Yapa said.

Tamil Tiger officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

The agreement had been considered the best chance of a permanent end to decades of civil war in the island nation and received widespread international support, especially from the United States, Japan, the European Union and India.

But the truce began breaking down in December 2005. The violence has since escalated to full-scale fighting and the government has captured large areas of former rebel-held territory.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the rebels are formally known, have fought since 1983 to create an independent homeland for the country's ethnic minority Tamils, after decades of discrimination by the state which is controlled by majority ethnic Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Discuss this story Published: Wed Jan 2 11:17:27 EST 2008