Colombo - Suspected Tamil rebels shot dead five farmers and injured two others in a remote village in north-eastern Sri Lanka, police said Wednesday.

The farmers were out on their fields in the Dehiwatta area of Serunuwara in the district of Trincomalee, 220 kilometres north-east of Colombo, Tuesday night to protect the crops from animal attacks when they were shot.

The hands of the farmers had been tied before they were shot, police said. The two surviving farmers are in serious condition and were brought to hospital.

Colombo, Mar. 23: Briefing documents prepared by the United Nations have warned of a major humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka, where over 150,000 people are being shelled at daily and are running short of water and medicine.

The Sri Lankan Government has declared the area in question as a "No Fire Zone", and the UN claims that tens of thousands of people are caught between the last 1,500 fighters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the advancing troops of the Sri Lankan army.

Colombo - Government troops have cornered the Tamil rebels in an area of 24 square kilometres in northern Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake said Thursday.

"We have eliminated terrorism from most parts of the country and will be able to report that terrorism has been eliminated from the entire country within days", Wickremanayake told parliament.

Colombo - Sri Lanka's opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who signed a Norwegian-backed peace deal with Tamil rebels as the country's prime minister in
2002, is under pressure from his own party to step down, local newspapers said Wednesday.

A section of lawmakers from the opposition United National Party (UNP) Wickremesinghe to step down.

Senior party members are to meet Wednesday night for discussions on the issue.

Colombo - Civilians in Tamil rebel-held areas are risking their lives and to flee fighting in the northern region, state-run television said Tuesday.

On Monday the Navy rescued 139 Tamil civilians including 53 children who were fleeing by boat and took them to a welfare centre run by the government.

In another instance a father and son who escaped by boat told the state run television that they were fired upon by the rebels and the son was hit by a bullet, but still managed to reach the shore, the military said.

Colombo - Tamil rebels were intensifying their assault on government troops in what has been described as the last few areas held by rebels in northern Sri Lanka.

An army spokesman said in the latest fighting around the Pudukudirippu area, 390 kilometres north east of the capital Colombo, troops clashed with rebels killing at least seven rebels on Sunday. The bodies along with seven T56 assault rifles were found in the area.

He said several soldiers were injured in the fighting, but did not give further details.