LTTE could be banned if attacks continue - President

Sri Lanka may outlaw the Tigers if they continue to mount large scale attacks, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said last night.

"One or two more attacks, we have no option," Rajapaksa told reporters after hosting a Christmas evening. "(We will) have to ban." "There is a limit to our patience," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

He said he would seek peace while continuing to fight the Tigers and did not view the two as mutually exclusive. "We are convinced peace is possible only if we can weaken the LTTE militarily," Rajapaksa said. The LTTE is outlawed as a terrorist group by a host of nations, including the United States, Britain, India and the European Union.

The LTTE was initially banned in 1998 after the attack on the Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy.

The proscription was lifted along with the signing of the Ceasefire Agreement in 2002.

The Government recently banned the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation, a front organisation of the LTTE.