COLOMBO, Jan 12: Sri Lanka’s main donors on Saturday voiced concern over mounting bloodshed ahead of a Japanese peace envoy's visit as the military said at least 74 Tamil Tiger rebels and two soldiers were killed in intense fighting.

Japan, the United States, the European Union and Norway, expressed deep concern over Colombo’s recent move to scrap the February 2002 truce with the rebels, saying they feared it would lead to further bloodshed and stall peace efforts.

Sri Lanka announced it would formally pull out of the six-year truce with the Tigers on Jan 16, saying the guerrillas had used the ceasefire as a cover to rearm, recruit and attack troops.

The quartet of financial backers, also known as co-chairs, asked the warring sides to protect civilians, allow humanitarian agencies access to affected people and urged Colombo to hammer out a political solution to stem the violence.

They also asked Colombo for access to meet the Tigers in their rebel-held territories in the north and urged “continued monitoring of the human rights situation by such means as to assure an appropriate role for the UN”.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly rejected previous calls for a UN rights mission here and there was no immediate comment from the government.

At least 74 rebels and two government soldiers have been killed in intense fighting since Friday, according to the military.

Some 332 rebels and 11 troops have been killed so far this month, according to military figures.

The quartet’s statement also comes as Sri Lanka’s biggest donor, Japan, sends peace envoy Yasushi Akashi for talks with Colombo starting on Sunday.

Akashi is due to have talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and government officials on “the current situation of the peace process and its future”, Japan’s embassy said here in a statement.

Analysts said Akashi’s three-day mission might prove fruitless.

“The government is hell-bent on pursuing its military plans” to crush the rebels before entering into any peace talks, said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo think-tank.

“Japan has serious economic clout in Sri Lanka and it will be interesting to see what his message to the government is,” Saravanamuttu said.

The envoy’s trip follows the slaying on Tuesday of minister for nation building D. M. Dassanayake, 51, in a bomb attack blamed on the rebels.

Rajapakse said the killing of Dassanayake, who was given a state funeral late on Saturday, marked a need “to redouble our efforts to rid our country of terrorism”. Fighting in the island’s north along the rebel-held areas of Jaffna, Vavuniya and Mannar has been rising with government forces claiming they now have the upper hand in the decades-old war.

There was no comment on the military’s latest casualty claims by the rebels, who are fighting for an independent Tamil nation in the majority Sinhalese island.—AFP