S Lanka Tigers say will go to talks late

COLOMBO, Apr 13 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today said they would attend key talks with the government in Switzerland but that they expected the meeting to be postponed for a few days.

Violence in the past week has killed more than 40 people in Sri Lanka's north and east and diplomats and analysts had feared the talks, originally scheduled for April 19-21, would not happen.

''The Geneva talks will happen,'' head of the rebel peace secretariat S. Puleedevan told Reuters by satellite phone from Kilinochchi, the de facto rebel capital. ''But the dates will have to be moved by a bit. We will go once we have met our eastern commanders from April 15 to 22.'' The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had been demanding that their eastern commanders be given safe conduct to travel on a Sea Tiger vessel from the east to their headquarters as a precondition for talks. The government had refused.

But Puleedevan said they had accepted a deal brokered by Nordic staffed ceasefire monitors to allow their commanders to travel on a civilian ferry with unarmed monitors -- including their head of mission -- aboard to guarantee safe passage.

''The general will personally be aboard to guarantee their safety,'' he said, referring to head of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Swedish Major General Ulf Henricsson.

There was no immediate comment from the government.

Puleedevan said the rebels continued to deny any involvement in the recent fragmentation mine ambushes against government troops that had pushed the island once again to the brink of a new civil war. Few analysts believe their denials.

''We have not taken any military action and we will not take any military action,'' he said.

The LTTE would use the talks to complain about Tamil armed groups -- particularly ex-Tigers the Karuna group -- who they say are backed by the army -- a charge the government denies, he said.

''There should be no armed groups in the government areas,'' he said.

Reuters SHB GC1540