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Bomb explosions kill

at least 21 in Colombo

COLOMBO: A suicide bomber pushing a cart of coconuts triggered explosives strapped to his body in the Sri Lankan capital, killing at least 21 people and wounding more than 40, police and witnesses said.

The man had tried to enter the offices of the chief minister of the western provincial council, witnesses said. When security guards asked to see his identification, he detonated the bomb, witnesses said.

All those who were killed were outside the building, which faces Independence Memorial Hall in the fashionable Cinnamon Gardens embassy district, when the bomb went off, witnesses said.

Earlier reports had said two bombs exploded, one inside the building and one outside.

Police said 42 people were wounded and taken to hospital. The western provincial chief minister, Susil Premajayantha, was unhurt, his family said.

The attack was believed to be the work of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

On the other hand Tamil Tigers fighting for a homeland in the north and east of Sri Lanka will announce a separate state on Tuesday, the independent Lankadeepa newspaper reported.

Quoting northern political sources, it said on Monday the state would combine the northern Jaffna peninsula, where the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) already have control, and parts of the east.

Residents of the area, which the paper said would be part of the Tamil state to be declared, said there was a lot of unusual LTTE movement. Military sources said Tigers attacked an army patrol in the eastern town of Mutter on Monday, killing two soldiers.

Last Thursday, President Chandrika Kumaratunga announced a devolution package for minority Tamils, which would guarantee them wide-ranging powers in the north and east.

But the package, approved by mainstream Tamil parties, was drawn up without consultation with the LTTE, which broke a 14-week truce in April and resumed a war which has raged since 1983.

The LTTE has yet to respond to the devolution proposals, which are to be included in a new constitution the government hopes will be ready by the end of the year.-Reuter