Sri Lanka suicide blast reportedly kills 12

It said weekend fighting in the northern and easterndistricts of the country also killed 47 rebels and 10 soldiers.

Fighting in Sri Lanka's 25-year-old civil war is nowconcentrated in the north and the government, which drove theTigers out of their eastern enclave last year, has vowed tofinish off the rebels by the end of the year.

"Twelve people were killed ... from a suicide blast inVavuniya town," military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said,adding several schoolchildren were also among the wounded.

Nanayakkara said a suicide bomber riding a motorcycle hadblown himself in front of a police station in the town.

Sri Lanka's civil war, reignited in 2006, has hit tourismand deterred investors in the $27 billion (13.8 billion pound)economy. Fighting has intensified since the government annulleda six-year-old Norwegian-brokered truce in January.

The military also said that air force fighter jets bombedrebel positions in far north while the ground troops capturedrebel-held areas in the north-western district of Mannar.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who arefighting for an independent state in the north and east, werenot immediately available for comment on the blast and thelatest fighting but said the air raids killed two civilians.

According to military data, more than 4,000 Tamil Tigerrebels, 460 military personnel and 205 civilians have beenkilled so far this year.

Independent confirmation of battlefield casualties is notusually possible because of lack of access, and militaryanalysts say both sides exaggerate the other's losses.

Analysts say the Sri Lankan army has the upper hand in thelatest phase of the long-running war given superior air power,strength of numbers and swathes of terrain captured in theisland's east. But they still see no clear winner on thehorizon.

(Reporting by Ranga Sirilal; Editing by Valerie Lee)