Colombo, Jan. 8 : A spokesman of the Sri Lanka military said on Thursday that government troops have taken more territory from Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told a press conference here that the army has seized the town of Pallai and hopes to recapture the entire northern part of the country soon.

Pallai is south of Muhamalai, the northernmost defensive line of the rebels in Jaffna, which the troops captured on Tuesday. The Tigers have not yet commented on the latest fighting in Jaffna.

Colombo - The Sri Lankan government Wednesday proscribed rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with effect from midnight, a cabinet minister said.

Tamil rebels had initially been declared a proscribed organization in January 1998 after they carried out a suicide bomb attack on a sacred Buddhist venue in central Sri Lanka, but the ban was later lifted in September 2002 to facilitate their return for peace talks under a Norwegian backed ceasefire.

Colombo - Security forces have started an advance towards a former military garrison in northern Sri Lanka in an attempt to drive Tamil rebels off the Jaffna peninsula.

The government troops reached the southern reaches of the Elephant Pass area, 395 kilometres north of the capital Colombo, and in the process captured a village earlier controlled by the rebels.

The Elephant Pass is strategically located at the entry to the northern Jaffna peninsula. The military twice lost control of the area to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

Colombo  - A private radio and television station on the outskirts of Sri Lanka's capital has been attacked by an armed gang that inflicted extensive damage to the studio complex and interrupted its broadcasts, a spokesman for the station said Tuesday.

A gang of 15 to 20 men stormed the Maharaja TV and Maharaja Broadcasting Corporation at Pannipitiya, 20 kilometres south-east of the Colombo, holding the staff at gunpoint and assaulting some of them before causing the damage early Tuesday, the spokesman said.

Colombo, Jan. 5 : Sri Lankan troops on Monday claimed that they had captured a part of the highly strategic Elephant Pass, a causeway that links northern Jaffna to the mainland.

Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara was quoted as saying that the southern part of the causeway fell to government troops advancing northwards from Kilinochchi, the political headquarters of the Tamil Tigers, which was captured by the army on Friday.

Meanwhile, the LTTE said they have killed 53 soldiers in the north of the island where the army is trying to capture rebel strongholds.

Colombo, Jan 5: The Chief Executive of the Sri Lankan cricket board, Duleep Mendis, has ruled out the impression that Sri Lanka together with India is ignoring Pakistan to ensure a series with India.

No final talk with Pakistan was held on the schedule of the tour of Pakistan; Geo News quoted Duleep Mendis, as saying.

Earlier, Mendis had promised the Chief Operating Officer of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Saleem Altaf, that he would finalise the schedule by Sunday, but the Sri Lankan cricket board failed to give a reply to the PCB on Sunday.