Exchange of fire in Trincomalee

He said an observation post near the Selva Nagar Army detachment in Trincomalee was attacked by LTTE with mortar fire and RPG.

Two soldiers seriously wounded were evacuated to the Trincomalee Hospital;later one soldier succumed to his injuries.

The rebels accused the military of carrying out a mortar attack on their positions near Trincomalee, earlier on Saturday.

The military has denied any involvement.

The LTTE political leader of Trincomalee, Ellilan told BBC Tamil Service that there were two attacks by the army.

A civilian was injured in the attack at Kaddaiparichan in the LTTE controlled area on Saturday morning, he said.

In the afternoon the army attacked a LTTE check point at Thoppur. LTTE retaliated. One LTTE cadre was killed in this incident, Ellilan said.

In another incident in Neerveli, Jaffna, an army truck was caught in a calymore mine explosion where one soldier and a civilian injured.

Brigadier Samarasinghe said the attacks in Jaffna and near Trincomalee were serious breaches of the cease-fire agreement, and had been reported to the peace monitoring mission in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the rebels have said they are being forced to transport senior members through government-controlled areas to an important meeting with field commanders, after the government refused to airlift the leaders.

The government previously provided helicopters to transport rebel officials to such meetings under the 2002 cease-fire agreement, but stopped doing so when tensions between the two sides increased late last year.