By Susannah Price in Colombo

The United Nations in Sri Lanka says it is examining what action to take about the increasing number of land mine victims in an area newly captured by the rebel Tamil Tigers.

The land mines, along with large amounts of unexploded ordinance, are being found in the area taken by the Tigers from the military in heavy fighting towards the end of last year.

The Mine Action Programme, sponsored by the Dutch and Australian governments, has already defused nearly 600 land mines in the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula.

The string of successes by the Tamil Tigers, who overran several army camps in November, has led to this new land mine problem.

The Tigers took a large area that had been heavily fortified by the army using minefields to protect their bases.

The civilians who left their villages when the army captured them during its 18-month long Operation Victory Assured are now coming back.

However, there appears to be little awareness of the risks of returning to a militarised zone.

Aid workers say in the past two months 15 people have been injured by land mines or unexploded ordinance.

Demining

The UN resident representative, Peter Witham, said they had received informal approaches from government officials about the situation and were sending a specialist to see the scale of the problem and what could be done.

However, he warned it was difficult to work in a conflict zone.

The UN can offer to help with mine awareness, which is already being carried out in Jaffna, using health and education centres along with drama and the media.

The government may agree to this. It is less likely to allow full-scale demining or permit access to army maps showing where the mines are laid.

The demining project has been a sensitive issue in Jaffna, where originally the government objected to local Tamils being employed because, according to the UN, they were worried the Tigers might benefit from the military knowledge.

There are still a few technical aspects of demining which are only carried out by foreigners.

But the UN says it is pleased with the progress in Jaffna and will triple the number of staff involved in the project, which looks set to continue for up to two more years.