More than a thousand Sri Lankans protested outside the British Embassy in Colombo today, accusing the British government of supporting the Tamil Tiger rebels and burning an effigy of Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Four top Tamil Tiger officials, including the supreme leader’s eldest son, were killed in Sri Lanka’s northern war zone, the military said today.

THE Tamil Tiger rebels admitted defeat in their 25-year-old war with the Sri Lankan government yesterday, offering to lay down their guns as government forces swept across their last strongholds in the northeast.

The Tamil Tiger rebels admitted defeat in their 25-year-old war with the Sri Lankan government today, offering to lay down their guns as government forces swept across their last strongholds in the northeast.

Sri Lankan troops closed in on separatist rebels in an ever-shrinking coastal war zone, as two prominent guerrillas surrendered and tens of thousands of refugees clutching their belongings fled the fighting in boats.

SRI LANKA yesterday gave the Tamil Tigers 24 hours to surrender or die after troops breached a huge earthen defence and unleashed an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians held there by the rebels, the military said.

SRI LANKA’S elusive Tamil rebel supremo was wounded in an air strike last month by security forces shortly after his annual policy broadcast, a privately run newspaper reported yesterday.

Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels have not quit a truce despite calling it “defunct,” European ceasefire monitors said today, as the government called for renewed peace talks.

Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran today said the 2002 ceasefire with Sri Lankan government was “defunct” and blamed the Sri Lankan government for failing to address the Tamil homeland demand through negotiations.

Tamil Tigers and bereaved families lit lamps and garlanded portraits of fallen fighters in rebel-held parts of Sri Lanka to mark the end of Hero’s Week, as the rebels’ reclusive leader prepared to make his annual policy speech today.

SRI LANKA’S president and the leader of Tamil Tiger rebels agreed yesterday to resume peace talks, raising hopes the tsunami-ravaged island nation may avoid sliding back into civil war after months of escalating violence.

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a passenger bus and clashed with security forces and civilians in the port town of Trincomalee today, leaving one person dead and three injured.

EU external relations commissioner Chris Patten arrived in Sri Lanka today to strengthen efforts to resume stalled peace talks with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Tamil Tiger rebels said today they were committed to a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire, allaying fears that a power struggle between Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister would plunge the tropical island back into civil war.

The Tamil Tiger chief - one of Asia's most wanted men - has appeared at his first news conference in 15 years.

A Norwegian peace envoy has arrived in the Sri Lankan capital to renew efforts to resume peace talks between the government and Tamil Tigers to end the country's protracted civil war.