Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels have killed four Sri Lankan soldiers in a claymore fragmentation mine ambush.
"It was a claymore attached to a three-wheeler (auto-rickshaw)," an army source said from the northern town of Vavuniya, just south of rebel territory, where the attack occurred on Monday.
"Four army people were killed."
Another army source in the northern town of Jaffna said another claymore mine had exploded prematurely there, killing the suspected Tiger rebel who was carrying it.
Geneva talks
The rebels have, meanwhile, said they would not attend peace talks with the Sri Lankan government in Switzerland unless they can hold a crucial internal meeting first.
A pro-Tamil website on Monday said that the rebels formally told Norwegian peace negotiaters they would not attend.
S PThamilselvan, the rebels' political wing leader, said in a letter to the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo: "We ... wish to inform you with sadness that until the hurdles in front of us to attend Geneva talks are removed and a more conducive environment created, our Geneva team is unable to come to the Geneva talks".
The talks have been scheduled for April 24-25 to discuss how to properly implement a 2002 Norway-negotiated cease-fire.
Rebel commanders cancelled a trip to the internal meeting on Saturday because of fear of threat by the presence of naval ships.
Transport squabble
The government said the four craft were there to ensure the rebels' safety and that they had told the guerillas about its presence in advance.
The transport squabble is the latest dispute to strain relations between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who began fighting in 1983 for a separate state for minority Tamils, claiming discrimination against them by the country's Sinhalese majority.
Sri Lanka's government agreed to provide helicopters for top rebel officials travelling through government-held territory as part of the 2002 truce, but has recently turned down several rebel requests because of increasing violence.
The development comes amid some of the worst violence in Sri Lanka since the cease-fire.
More than 45 people have been killed in the north and east since last Monday, in attacks blamed on rebels and fighting between ethnic Tamils and the island's majority Sinhalese.
PHOTO CAPTION
Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard near the scene of a blast in Vavuniya, northeastern Sri Lanka April 17, 2006. (REUTERS)