Priest who blessed S Lanka president shot dead

COLOMBO, Feb 8 (Reuters) Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse today condemned the Tamil Tigers for killing a Hindu priest who blessed him during a landmark visit to a captured eastern rebel stronghold days earlier.

High Priest Parameshwara Kurukkal smeared ash on Rajapakse's forehead on Saturday in a traditional blessing as he visited the town of Vakarai in the eastern district of Batticaloa, which the military captured last month after weeks of fighting.

The military says the priest was shot dead near his temple last night by Tiger rebels. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were not immediately available for comment.

''As a nation and a government we unequivocally condemn with contempt the assassination of this clergyman carried out by the savage and cruel LTTE terrorists,'' Rajapakse said in a statement.

The secular Tigers say they are fighting for an independent state for mostly Hindu minority Tamils in the island's north and east, and say they do not trust the majority-Sinahlese government in the island's mostly Buddhist south to sincerely talk peace.

More than 4,000 troops, civilians and rebels have been killed in the past year as a two-decade civil war that has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983 flared, leaving a 2002 ceasefire pact in tatters.

Reuters SSC GC1441