No new Sri Lanka strikes, but island on edge

COLOMBO, Apr 28 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's military halted air strikes on Tamil Tiger rebel targets for a second day today, as aid workers assessed the number of people displaced by government attacks and suspected rebel violence continued.

More than 100 people have died in the bloodiest three weeks since a 2002 ceasefire, and while air strikes launched after a suicide attack on army headquarters appear to have ended, diplomats say the island teeters on the brink of a new war.

International pressure, including from giant neighbour India, is helping to keep Colombo in check, but with six soldiers killed yesterday in suspected Tiger grenade and fragmentation mine attacks, more hawkish voices in government are said to want strikes resumed.

At the same time, mediator Norway has not entirely lost hope that talks, which should have taken place last week in Switzerland, can still be salvaged, and that if the two sides can be persuaded to talk tensions can be reduced.

Taking advantage of the relative quiet, aid workers say assessment missions have now moved into rebel areas south of Trincomalee hit by bombing and shelling. They say some people fled their homes, but initial Tiger figures of 40,000 displaced people appear very wide of the mark.

''We have not found many people displaced,'' said Amin Awad, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representative in Sri Lanka. ''We don't have exact numbers yet, but a lot of them are returning home.'' Sri Lanka's main donors Japan, Norway, the European Union and United States are due to meet later in the day in the Norwegian capital Oslo to discuss the situation.

The European Union is considering whether to list the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as terrorists alongside Al Qaeda -- a threat that diplomats say is being used as a weapon to try and bring them to talks.

One soldier was killed in a suspected Tiger grenade attack in the northern town of Jaffna late yesterday, the army said, while search operations in the northeastern port of Trincomalee led to explosives being found on a motorbike. Five other soldiers died in two fragmentation mine ambushes.

The Tigers, whose two-decade fight for a Tamil homeland has killed more than 64,000 people on both sides, deny recent attacks on the military, including the suicide attack in Colombo that killed 10 and wounded the army commander.

But Nordic truce monitors say it is unlikely to be anyone else, and analysts say the small Tamil groups that have claimed responsibility are Tiger fronts.

REUTERS SY KP1010