Villagers 'shot by Tamil Tigers'

Six villagers from Sri Lanka's majority Sinhala community have been abducted and shot dead, officials say.

Correspondents say it is the worst attack on Sinhala villagers since Tamil Tiger rebels and the government began a ceasefire in 2002.

Police say the Tigers killed the villagers in the district of Trincomalee. The Tigers deny the claim.

There has been a wave of violence in the north and east of Sri Lanka in recent days.

Last week the Tigers pulled out of scheduled peace talks.

'Provoking violence'

"Those farmers were working in their paddy fields when they were taken and shot," army spokesman Brig Prasad Samarasinghe said, Reuters news agency reports.

Violence in Trincomalee town this month left 16 dead (Photo: Dharmatasa Kantale)

The spokesman told the BBC that the Tigers were trying to provoke communal violence by targeting civilians. The Tigers told the BBC they were not involved in the deaths.

Sinhala villagers in the area have fled, police say.

Tension in the Trincomalee district has been high since 16 people died in bombings and rioting in Trincomalee town in the middle of April.

The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Colombo says the east of Sri Lanka is falling apart. There are daily attacks against the military blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels.

Thousands of Tamils have fled their homes, afraid of retribution from Sinhala mobs. Scores of Tamils have disappeared.

In other violence on Sunday, the military said three rebels were killed in clashes in the north and the east of the country.

Police say a fourth man is in hospital after eating a cyanide capsule similar to those regularly carried by the rebels after the police detained him.

A government official says Norway has offered the rebels use of a 10-seater civilian helicopter to allow them to hold internal meetings - a precondition the Tigers had set for attending talks in Geneva which have been cancelled.

There has been no response from the Tigers to the offer.

The Tigers have been fighting for an independent homeland for over two decades. The government has made it clear that the island must remain unified.

Our correspondent says there is deadlock and there seems little hope of calming the situation.