COLOMBO, April 17: At least eight people were killed and many more wounded in a spate of blasts in Sri Lanka on Monday, hours after Tiger rebels suspended their participation in ceasefire talks, the military said.

The latest deaths raised to 64 the number of people, mostly police or troops, killed in bomb attacks in the past week in the latest surge of violence linked to the decades-old Tamil separatist conflict.

On Sunday night the rebels said they were suspending their participation in talks set to take place in Switzerland next week on saving a shaky Norwegian-arranged truce that has been in place since February 2002.

Five of those killed were soldiers who died when a powerful Claymore landmine exploded near their truck in Vavuniya district, a military official said from the town of Vavuniya, 260km north of Colombo.

Seven soldiers were wounded in the attack, which the official blamed on Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Another Claymore mine exploded further north in the Jaffna peninsula, killing the man who was carrying it and two others, a military source said.

Early investigations indicated the device was being set up to target a military convoy but had exploded prematurely, the source said.

A grenade exploded in the northeastern town of Trincomalee on Monday but there were no casualties, police said, adding they would continue a night curfew in the area to help maintain law and order.

A fourth blast aimed at an airforce bus exploded at the eastern town of Sittandi, wounding two airmen.—AFP