S Lanka police say 9 dead after blast, riot

COLOMBO, Apr 12 (Reuters) Two Sri Lankan soldiers and seven civilians died after a blast in the northeastern port of Trincomalee today and the riots that followed, forcing authorities to impose a curfew in the town.

A string of suspected Tamil Tiger attacks on the military in recent days had killed more than 20 people since Friday, leading diplomats to fear civil war might resume, but police said they did not know who was behind today's blast.

''The situation is now under control,'' police Deputy Inspector General Rohan Abeywardene told Reuters.

''A curfew has been imposed. Nine are dead, and fifty to sixty have been injured.'' Trincomalee, a strategic naval base near Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) territory on Sri Lanka's northeast coast, is one of the few areas of the country with large populations from the island's three main Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities.

The unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, tasked with monitoring a strained 2002 ceasefire between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, said they had reports the situation was out of control and called on police to restore order.

A second round of talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels is scheduled to take place next week in Switzerland, but the rebels, who want a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east, have yet to categorically say they will attend.

The government says it is still confident the rebels will attend, but diplomats say they fear the talks will not happen, violence will rise and the country will slide back into a civil war that has already killed more than 64,000 people.

REUTERS SI PM1749