Sri Lanka army, Tigers trade charges as talks start

COLOMBO, June 8 (Reuters) Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels accused each other of attacks today, as talks on the safety of the island's Nordic unarmed ceasefire monitoring mission began in Oslo.

More than 400 people have been killed since early April and the island's north and east is now locked in a low-intensity conflict.

But the Oslo meeting, the first since February, will only centre on the role of the Nordic mission monitoring what is left of a 2002 ceasefire.

The army said one officer was killed and a soldier wounded in today's suspected rebel fragmentation mine attack in the north-western Mannar district.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) accused the military of shelling rebel positions near the northeastern port of Trincomalee. They said there were no casualties.

''The army has shelled the LTTE forward defence line three times,'' northeastern Tiger political leader S Elilan told Reuters.

''We did not receive any injuries, nor damages. Our front defence line is perfect.'' The army said it had reports of incidents in rebel territory, possibly attacks by renegade ex-Tigers the Karuna group, but denied any involvement.

The Tigers say Karuna is backed by the army, which the government has repeatedly denied, and the feud is seen as one of the central impediments to peace.

ESCALATION FEARS Army spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said an army camp at Kiran near the eastern town of Batticaloa had also come under mortar fire today, but no one was hurt.

That was close to where the Tigers said a civilian tractor was blasted by an army-laid mine on Wednesday, killing 10. The army has denied any involvement in that attack.

If violence continues, many fear that in time it could spiral back to a full scale civil war that killed more than 64,000 people and devastated the island's minority Tamil dominated north and east, where the Tigers want a separate homeland.

But discussions at the Oslo meeting, which continues until tomorrow, will not move beyond the operations of the 60-person Nordic-staffed unarmed Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM).

''It is positive that the parties have come to Oslo to discuss the situation of the SLMM,'' said a statement from Norway's development minister Erik Solheim, who brokered the original truce.

''The agenda for the meeting is limited to SLMM, and we haven't got any further expectations.'' SLMM has been caught in several firefights and angered both sides by accusing them of repeated ceasefire breaches. They blamed members of the armed forces for extra-judicial killings and ruled the Tigers had no right to send their Sea Tiger warships to sea.

Angry after the European Union last month listed them as terrorists alongside Al Qaeda, the Tigers have hinted they want monitors from EU states withdrawn from the SLMM.

Diplomats say bringing the two parties together -- even if only to discuss SLMM -- offers some hopes of a breakthrough on other issues, such as Tiger demands the government rein in Karuna or an agreement to resume substantive peace talks.

''If there is no progress, then I think there will be a slow escalation,'' said a western diplomat. ''If these talks fail I think there could be an attack on an economic target in Colombo.'' REUTERS KD BST1441