Violence continues as Sri Lanka awaits Japan envoy

COLOMBO, May 6 (Reuters) Government troops came under fire in Sri Lanka's north today as the island awaited the arrival of Japanese peace envoy Yasushi Akashi for the latest in a series of attempts to prevent a return to civil war.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebel attacks, ethnic riots, government air strikes and unsolved murders blamed on both sides have killed more than 200 people since early April. A ragged 2002 ceasefire still holds along most front lines, however.

A day after the military said they had destroyed a Sea Tiger suicide attack boat and a truck-mounted heavy gun in battle, the army said troops had come under fire in the northern army-held but minority Tamil-dominated town of Jaffna.

''They came under fire from the LTTE,'' said a military spokesman, referring to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

''One soldier was injured. The troops did not return fire because the area was so congested.'' Both sides say they want to return to peace talks, but diplomats fear that if violence continues the country may plunge back into its two-decade civil war, which has already killed more than 64,000 people.

Japan's Akashi was due to arrive in Colombo today evening and is expected to meet President Mahinda Rajapakse and Tiger political leader S P Thamilselvan on Monday and Tuesday respectively, delivering the message to both that the international community does not want to see a new conflict.

Japan is Sri Lanka's biggest aid donor.

Norwegian-brokered peace talks were due to take place last month in Switzerland, but the Tigers pulled out indefinitely citing a dispute over the transport of eastern rebel commanders to a pre-talks meeting and accusing the army of attacks on Tamil civilians.

INTERNATIONAL MESSAGE The government has now agreed to a Tiger request that a private seaplane be used to move rebels from patches of territory they hold in the east to their northern headquarters, but new issues have arisen over the road transport to the seaplane landing site.

Diplomats fear neither side is willing to make the concessions necessary for talks. Sri Lanka's main donors -- Japan, Norway, the European Union and the United States -- met in Oslo last month, and Akashi will carry their message.

Diplomats say he is likely to warn the government that the international community does not want to see more air strikes and that the government must do more to protect Tamil rights. The army denies any attacks on civilians, but increasing numbers of Tamils have been found dead near army camps in the north.

He will also likely warn the Tigers that ongoing attacks on the military in the Tamil-dominated north and east, where the rebels want a separate ethnic Tamil homeland, would prompt international action, most likely leading to them being banned as a terrorist group by the European Union.

But with a visit by Norwegian peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer last month yielding little, hopes for his visit are cautious at best.

''I think this will be mostly symbolic,'' said one Colombo-based diplomat. ''But this cycle of violence cannot continue.'' REUTERS SY KN1628