SLanka police say Tiger ambush kills two officers

COLOMBO, Apr 12 (Reuters) Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels ambushed a police truck with a claymore fragmentation mine today, police said, killing two officers and wounding two amid a surge of violence ahead of planned peace talks.

More than 20 people have died since Friday and diplomats fear violence may be spiralling out of control, that peace talks scheduled to take place next week in Geneva may not happen and that the island's two-decade civil war may restart.

''It was a claymore attack,'' Senior Superintendent Nihal Samarakoon told Reuters from the northeastern port of Trincomalee, close to the scene of the attack. ''Two were killed and two were injured. It was the LTTE.'' The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are also suspected of being behind two other lethal claymore ambushes in Sri Lanka's north and east since Monday, including one on a navy bus near Trincomalee that killed 11 sailors and wounded two passing British nationals.

The head of the Nordic-staffed international mission monitoring the increasingly strained 2002 truce was due to meet the rebels today to discuss the recent attacks. Few analysts believe their denials of responsibility.

The rebels have yet to say if they will attend talks in Geneva from April 19 to 21, saying they want a government safe-conduct for a Sea Tiger vessel to take their commanders from eastern rebel areas to the de facto Tiger capital for talks.

The Tigers' fight for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka's north and east has already killed more than 64,000 on both sides. On Monday Canada joined Britain, the United States and India in listing the group as terrorists alongside Al Qaeda.

Reuters KD DB1027