International truce monitors in Sri Lanka travelled to the country's north Friday in a bid to restore calm following mounting tensions between the military and Tamil Tiger guerrillas.

Trond Furuhovde, chief of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), flew from Colombo to Vavuniya town to meet leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and government troops, reports Xinhua.

At least 14 people were injured in the northern town of Mannar Thursday when civilians backed by the LTTE clashed with the police near the main bus stand.   

The police and the army were trying to prevent the LTTE from raising its flag in government-controlled areas in celebration of the group's Heroes Week celebrations.

The dispute later spilled on to capital Colombo where Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs staged a sit-in protest against the incident in parliament.     

Tamil legislators called for a full probe into what they alleged were army attacks on civilians.
 
SLMM spokesman Oskar Solnes said flag hoisting would be regarded as a violation of the ceasefire agreement between the government and LTTE reached in 2002.

Furuhovde, a retired Norwegian Army general, will hold talks with both parties to bring the volatile situation under control, SLMM sources said.

The LTTE's Heroes Week will end Saturday with a speech by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran on the future of the stalled peace negotiations brokered by the Norwegian peace facilitators. 

--Indo-Asian News Service