Sunday, July 30 2006 14:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: Amidst reports that the latest Sri Lankan air strike against an LTTE conference centre left at least 40 Tamil Tigers dead, the government today (July 30, 2006) said the four days of bombings on rebel positions in the island's northeast were a 'limited operation' and not a return to full-scale war.

Quoting intelligence sources, 'The Sunday Times' reported that at least 40 Tigers died in yesterday's aerial attack in the district of Batticaloa, but the rebels maintained that they lost only eight cadre.

The Defence Ministry said the attacks were aimed at ending a Tiger blockade of an irrigation canal that had deprived water to thousands of farmers in the island's restive northeast.

"The security forces are currently engaged in a limited operation with a clearly defined objective of securing water supplies to the civilian population," it said in a statement.

Tamil Tigers, meanwhile, asked Nordic monitors to declare that Sri Lanka's faltering truce was over following four days of bombing by Air Force jets.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said a total of 15 of their members were killed in the bombing that began on Wednesday, including the eight killed yesterday.

In a letter to the Swedish-led Sri lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), the rebels asked them to officially declare that the February 2002 truce was off following the latest violence.

"It is now appropriate for the SLMM to declare publicly that the ceasefire agreement is not holding anymore on the ground," LTTE's regional leader S Elilan told the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website.

The bombings escalated after Finland and Denmark said they would withdraw their nationals from the SLMM in line with a demand by Tigers that they quit before September one.