''As of now we have not thought of banning the LTTE,'' Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told the media here on Friday.

''The talk of a ban has been speculative,'' he added.

However, key personalities in the country like secretary of defence Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who is President Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother, and the politically influential Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had publicly spoken of the need for a ban on the LTTE.

Political observers believed that the ban and the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement would come simultaneously. But this did not happen. The truce pact alone was abrogated.

''We are looking at several options,'' Bogollagama said without elaborating, when asked what the government planned to do if it did not want to ban the LTTE now.

The foreign minister reiterated President Rajapaksa's statement of Dec 26 in which he said he was ready for talks with the LTTE if it came to the negotiating table after laying down arms.

He said it was pointless talking to the LTTE before it was militarily crushed or in other words, forced to lay down arms. More... Published: Sat Jan 5 19:48:45 EST 2008

Troops destroyed four bunkers in the Nagarkovil and Muhamalai areas of the Jaffna peninsula, killing six Tamil Tiger rebels, the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Soldiers meanwhile attacked two bunkers in Mannar district's Adampan village and exchanged artillery rounds with the rebels, killing 10 of them, the statement said.

In Parappaankandal village, also in Mannar, soldiers overran six rebel bunkers and killed 10 guerrillas, the military's statement said.

Eight soldiers were wounded in Saturday's clashes, it added.

Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan was not immediately available for comment. It was not possible to obtain independent confirmation of the clashes because journalists are not allowed in the conflict areas.

Both sides often release inflated casualty figures for their opponents while lowering their own.

The government announced Thursday it was abandoning a Norway-brokered cease-fire, and European truce monitors subsequently said they planned to leave the war-torn island Jan. 16.

The team initially recorded sporadic cease-fire violations, but later acted as one of the few independent observers of the war, with access to both sides and the freedom to investigate reports of civilian casualties.

On Friday, New-York based Human Rights Watch said a U.N. human rights monitoring mission should be dispatched to protect ordinary Sri Lankans after the Europeans depart.

More than 70,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed since the rebels began fighting in 1983 for an independent state for the ethnic Tamil minority, claiming discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.

Despite the cease-fire, near-daily ambushes, assassinations and airstrikes have killed more than 5,000 people over the last two years.Discuss this story Published: Sat Jan 5 13:28:09 EST 2008