COLOMBO, Jan 4: As the world reacted negatively to the Sri Lankan government’s decision to withdraw from the ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels, the international truce monitors in the country announced that they would end their services in the country.

“The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) will terminate its current operational activities in Sri Lanka effective Jan 16, at 1900 hrs,” the ceasefire monitoring mission announced on Friday.

The United Nations, US and Canada expressed regret at the Mahinda Rajapakse led government’s decision to withdraw from the ceasefire as fighting sharply escalated after the ceasefire abrogation announcement.

Meanwhile, the US has declared that the country has suspended the issuance of licences for the sale or transfer of military equipment and services to Sri Lanka.

The LTTE, stating that the truce will end on Jan 16, a day after the Tamil festival of Thai pongal, has claimed that the Sinhala nation ‘consistently underestimates’ them.

“The Sinhala nation showed eagerness in the peace talks only when we shattered their ‘Operation Fireball’ military action and made them realise that the Tigers cannot be defeated,” Prabhakaran was further quoted as saying on thr pro-rebel Tamil Net website.

Heavy fighting between government troops and Tamil Tigers broke out in northern Sri Lanka Thursday, hours after Colombo announced it was pulling out of a tattered ceasefire agreement with the rebels.