Colombo: The Sri Lankan Government condemned today's (Jul 7, 2004) suicide bombing that killed four policemen and said the attack showed that the perpetrators were "reverting to violence".

In the first Government acknowledgment that the Tiger rebels may be going back to war, the Government said the attack, which left the suicide bomber and four policemen dead, pointed to the rebels giving up dialogue.

The Government statement, however, did not directly blame the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but said it strongly condemned the attempted assassination of a Tamil Minister through today's suicide mission.

Defence Ministry officials and the police had, however, blamed the Tigers for the attack which carried the hallmarks of the LTTE, which on Monday (Jul 5, 2004) commemorated the 17th anniversary of their first suicide bombing.

"The perpetrators of this act show callous disregard for human lives and are reverting to violence as a means of settling disputes," the brief four-paragraph statement said.

The blast came amid Tiger charges that Government forces were preparing for war by providing support to a breakaway guerrilla leader, V Muralitharan, better known as Karuna, to stage attacks against the main rebel group.

The intended target of the attack, Minister Douglas Devananda, had publicly said that he was in contact with Karuna and had been discussing the possibility of the renegade forming a new political party to challenge the Tigers.

Devananda had survived several assassination attempts in the past.