Blast in Sri Lankan bus kills at least four

COLOMBO, Jan 5 (Reuters) A blast ripped through a passenger bus in western Sri Lanka today, killing at least four people, officials said.

''There has been an explosion, the bus is burning,'' Major Upali Rajapaksa, an official in the media centre for national security, told Reuters.

There were 80 people in the bus during the evening rush-hour when the blast occurred in the town of Nittambuwa, 36 km (20 miles) north of Colombo.

''There were at least four killed, we are doing investigations,'' said deputy inspector general of police D W Prathapasinghe.

The blast in the relatively peaceful west took place at a time when the Sri Lankan military has launched air and artillery attacks on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north and the east of the island.

More than 3,000 people were killed in suicide bombings, aerial and naval raids and clashes last year despite a 2002 ceasefire that international monitors say now exists only on paper.

A claymore mine exploded earlier in the day in the rebel-controlled northern region, killing two government agriculture officials, the Tigers said, blaming the blast on government forces.

The Tigers said a Sri Lankan army group had crossed into the rebel-controlled Nedunkeni area, apparently to target rebels but hit government officials by mistake.

The military denied any involvement.

Sri Lankan government planes pressed on with attacks on rebel bases for a fourth consecutive day today.

The military said a Sea Tiger base in the northern rebel-controlled area of Mullaittivu had been destroyed. It gave no details on casualties.

Independent confirmation of the fighting is impossible, and both sides often exaggerate rival losses while playing down their own.

Nevertheless, violence between the military and the LTTE has escalated in recent weeks, with the government vowing to dislodge the rebels from their strongholds in the east.

REUTERS AKJ RN2001