Monday, January 23 2006 13:25 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: At least three soldiers were killed and two others wounded in a powerful landmine attack in eastern Sri Lanka today (Jan 23, 2006) as Norway's peace envoy arrived here to save the tottering truce, officials said.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out the attack in the district of Batticaloa, a military official in the area said. He said the victims were looking for mines along the road, when the blast took place.

The latest attack raised to 149 the number of people killed in a fresh wavg of violence since December.

The explosion came as Norway's top peace envoy Erik Solheim arrived here in a bid to jump-start the island's stalled peace process and salvage a troubled truce amid fears that the island could slip back to full-scale war.

Hours before Solheim landed at the island's only international airport, LTTE's London chief negotiator Anton Balasingham also arrived to join talks with Solheim.

Solheim travels to the LTTE-held Kilinochchi on Wednesday for talks with Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

The Norwegian-led truce-monitoring mission warned this month that war may not be far away and shut down operations in the northeastern district of Trincomalee for two days.

Solheim is also due to meet with the visiting US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns today. The two men are expected to exert pressure on the LTTE to halt their attacks and resume talks.

Burns will have no direct talks with Tigers as they are banned by the US, but Solheim is due to meet Prabhakaran on Wednesday before leaving the island on Thursday.