Sri Lanka offensive after ceasefire call

A Sri Lankan government minister has dismissed the ceasefire offer made by Tamil Tiger separatist rebels yesterday on Thursday as a gimmick.

The deputy defence minister, Anuruddha Ratwatte, said the government had received no official notice of the ceasefire, which was announced in a press release in London: he said it was just an effort to give the impression the rebels wanted peace.

However, another minister the media minister, Anura Yapa, said the offer to stop fighting for a month from Sunday could be productive.

The Sri Lankan army, meanwhile, says it's killed fifty rebels in an offensive launched within hours of the ceasefire offer.

The army said twenty-five soldiers had also died in fighting in the northern Jaffna peninsula. It said the offensive has already recaptured more than thirty square kilometres of territory.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service