World News joined 5

[OMEN]

The Rev Ian Paisley will remain as the MP and Assembly member for North Antrim
The Rev Ian Paisley has announced he is to quit as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and First Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly.

He will remain as the MP and Assembly member for North Antrim.

Senior Democratic Unionists are hopeful that there will be a seamless handover following his decision to stand down after 37 years.

Stormont finance minister and DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson is the strong favourite to take over, although economy minister Nigel Dodds has also been mentioned as a possible leadership candidate.
But senior sources predicted that there would be no divisive contest, with 59-year-old Mr Robinson likely to take over as leader and First Minister and 49-year-old Mr Dodds becoming his deputy as part of a dream ticket.

Mr Paisley announced he would stand aside after an investment conference on May 7 to 9 aimed at American businessmen, which Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Irish taoiseach Bertie Ahern are expected to attend.

Mr Paisley said he had decided to stand down after the conference because it seemed to be the most appropriate time for him to quit frontline politics.

But he would not be drawn on who should take over. "This is not the Church of Rome," he told Ulster Television, "This is not Apostolic succession and I have no right to say who will succeed me."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "Ian Paisley has made a huge contribution to political life in Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. His commitment and dedication to public service deserve our gratitude. Progress on bringing a lasting peace to Northern Ireland would not have been possible without his immense courage and leadership."

Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams extended his best wishes to Mr Paisley and commended him for his crucial role in forging the agreement with Sinn Fein last year which restored devolution.

AOL

[OMEN]

BACK IN THE RACE: Analysts said it was critical that Hillary Clinton won Ohio.
Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton has scored a huge boost in her campaign, winning the popular vote in the Texas primary after taking Ohio and Rhode Island, US media reports.
The wins for Clinton, 60, a New York senator, will send the hotly contested Democratic race on toward the next major contest - Pennsylvania on April 22.

Today's wins break Barack Obama's month-long string of victories in the state contests to pick a Democratic candidate for the November US election.

It is a major comeback for Clinton, who was under pressure to win in the two biggest states, Ohio and Texas, or face calls to withdraw from the race.

"We're going on, we're going strong, and we're going all the way," Clinton told roaring supporters in Columbus, Ohio. "We're just getting started."

Earlier, Clinton won the Rhode Island presidential primaries, while Obama picked up an easy win in Vermont.

Turnout was reported heavy in all four states, and the Obama and Clinton campaigns traded accusations of irregularities at the polls in both Ohio and Texas.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Steve Irwin's widow Terri has lost her bid to fight a multi-million dollar lawsuit in her home state of Queensland.

The wife of the late Crocodile Hunter and their world-famous Australia Zoo are being sued by a debt collection company which claims both parties owe more than $A2.5 million ($NZ2.92 million) over a complex loan deal with an offshore bank.

Alyssa Treasury Services has taken over several debts allegedly owed to various overseas companies and banks.

It has issued dozens of writs against various parties it claims did not honour "bills of exchange" - unconditional promises to pay money as part of their involvement in a tax minimisation scheme.

Lawyers for Ms Irwin and the zoo argued that Queensland was a more appropriate venue for the case because most potential witnesses were based there and the claim by Alyssa was brought under commonwealth law.

But Victorian County Court Judge Maree Kennedy today rejected the application, saying she wasn't satisfied the Supreme Court of Queensland was the appropriate court to hear the matter.

"The cause of action herein has a strong connection with this state (Victoria)," Judge Kennedy ruled.

"On the evidence at this stage, it appears that issue, acceptance and endorsement of the bill (of exchange) have all taken place in Victoria."

Judge Kennedy said she accepted that a Queensland connection could become more significant as the case proceeded, adding that she would reserve the right of Ms Irwin and Australia Zoo to further apply in future to have the case moved to their home state if fresh evidence was produced.

Alyssa alleges several parties including Ms Irwin - who is being personally sued for $A60,000 - and the zoo promised but failed to pay large sums of money in connection with the loan.

AAP

[OMEN]

Venezuela has lifted trade restrictions with Colombia after an earlier halt, state television reported, amid a diplomatic crisis that threatens stability in the Andean region.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks to the border after Colombian security forces killed leftist rebels in an attack on Ecuadorean territory, escalating tensions in a dispute Chavez says could lead to war.

A state television reporter said authorities had "decided to allow the entrance of Colombian cargo trucks into Venezuelan territory (if) they are carrying high priority and perishable goods."

Military officials at the border told Reuters they were allowing all cargo trucks to cross into Venezuela.

"Tomorrow the border will be open like any other day," said one official when asked if the restrictions would be lifted permanently.

Truckers and transport industry leaders said Venezuela had shuttered customs operations at three major crossing points, creating long lines of truck on the Colombian side of the border.

The border opening followed hours of conflicting media reports and confusion along the border over what the government had actually decided.

Agriculture Minister Elias Jaua in the morning said, "We have taken some measures like the closure of the border" without elaborating.

Venezuela's Seniat tax agency, which is also in charge of customs, did not respond to requests for clarification.

The two nations have around $US6 billion ($NZ7.61 billion) a year in trade, with Venezuela importing cars, beef and medicine from its neighbour. Colombia imports chemicals, iron and plastic from Venezuela.

Venezuela has also increasingly relied on imports from its neighbour to address shortages of staple foods such as milk and chicken.

The country's business leaders say the shortages are caused by price controls that have not kept up with Latin America's highest inflation, while government leaders blame the problem on increased demand and hoarding.

Reuters

[OMEN]

An Iraqi military helicopter has crashed and all eight people on board killed, the US military said, the worst crash suffered by Iraq as it rebuilds its air force.

"Recovery operations have been completed and there were no survivors," the US military said in a statement.

One US service member was among those on board the Russian-made Mi-17 aircraft, it said, adding that the cause of the crash in northern Iraq was under investigation.

An Iraqi Defence Ministry statement said the helicopter had gone missing in a dust storm and the weather was the most likely cause of the crash.

It said the wreckage of the aircraft was found on Tuesday near Baiji, 180km north of Baghdad.

The helicopter was first reported missing on Monday near Sharqat, a desert area on the northern edges of Salahuddin province. Iraqi security officials had originally said two pilots were the only people on board.

An Iraqi military official in Salahuddin said the helicopter's pilots had radioed that they planned to make a forced landing because of the dust storm.

The US military said the last reported contacted with the helicopter was at 2.40pm (0040 NZT) on Monday.

Iraq is slowly rebuilding its air force, once one of the world's largest, after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Its helicopters are mainly used for reconnaissance missions and to ferry troops.

Another Iraqi military helicopter was reported to have crashed in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad on May 30 last year, killing five people on board.

Five people were also killed when an Iraqi helicopter crashed during a training flight earlier last year.

Reuters

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[Stamkos]

See, if there was no war, then this wouldn't have happened.

[OMEN]

A hijacker armed with explosives was shot dead yesterday after he took 10 Australians hostage on their tour bus in China.

The man let nine of the 10 go but he held a 48-year-old NSW woman and an interpreter for a terrifying two hours until a sniper shot him dead.

#The Australians, all travel agents on an educational tour, were taken hostage in the city of Xian - where the main attraction is the Terracotta Army - in Shaanxi province in north-west China. The man, Xia Tao, reported to be a factory worker, boarded their bus at 10.52am and demanded transport to the airport.

After nine of the hostages were released and taken to safety, members of the Xian Public Security Bureau spoke to Xia.

As thousands of people crowded around Xian's central Bell and Drum Tower Square, where the hijack occurred, they agreed to let him go to the airport. A reader of Hua Shang Bao posted a comment on the paper's website saying they had seen Xia going to police headquarters, where the police chief exchanged himself for the hostages. The reader said Xia had dynamite strapped to his body.

At 12.52, as he approached a toll station near the airport, members of the bureau called out to the man to get out of the car before shooting and killing him.

The Department of Foreign Affairs reported that neither the NSW woman nor the interpreter was harmed. Consular officials would meet the group in Shanghai and provide help.

A diplomatic source in Beijing said they were not surprised by the hijacking as there was much random violence that was often not reported. The motive was not known, but Chinese media reported that when Xia got on the bus he had demanded to speak to the city's second top policeman, Wu Jin Biao

SMH

[OMEN]

The death sentences of three of the nine young Australian drug traffickers in Bali have been reduced to life imprisonment by Indonesia's Supreme Court, giving hope to the remaining three Australians on death row.

The result of the final appeals of Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen and Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen have not been officially announced, but court sources confirmed judges had decided to spare their lives.

The court had taken into account their youth and the fact they were "not masterminds".

A spokesman for the their legal team, Henri Sitanggang, confirmed the news. He said he was delighted their lives had been spared and they would now move to seek a pardon from the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In their appeal, all three confessed to their role in the plan to import heroin from Bali to Australia, but begged for forgiveness and a chance to reform.

All three were arrested in Bali's Melasti Hotel with a quantity of heroin, shortly after other members of the plot were apprehended at Denpasar Airport in 2005. They were to carry a second shipment back to Sydney.

Mr Sitanggang said they should have been given a shorter jail sentence as they were young and wanted to redeem themselves.

"Of course I am happy because we have saved these people's lives," he said. "Our next program is to apply for the grace of the President."

Mr Sitanggang said that, in time, lawyers would move to have the three eligible for remissions, and he hoped they could be released within 10 years.

The decision may prompt another courier, Scott Rush, and the alleged ringleaders of the heroin smuggling, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, to lodge their final appeals to the Supreme Court.

The latest Supreme Court verdict came as a surprise as it was the court that upgraded the sentences of the three men to death from 20 years' imprisonment during an earlier appeal.

One of Scott Rush's lawyers, John North, said last night that he was "delighted with the decision".

"It shows that the Indonesian Supreme Court is able to recognise the individual characteristics of those involved," he said.

"We hope that they will, in due course, recognise that Scott Rush is the only one of the airport couriers to face the death penalty and we hope that he will be treated in the same way as Renae Lawrence, who is serving 20 years."

Michael Czugaj and Martin Stephens are serving life.

The lawyer for Sukumaran and Chan, the Melbourne QC Julian McMahon, said: "Who could say that decades in jail for a young adult is not adequate punishment for any crime?"

SMH

[OMEN]

Zimbabwe is seeking to rush in maize imports from southern African states, President Robert Mugabe told an election rally on Wednesday, saying the country faced an emergency.

Concerns over widespread food shortages deepened after a government report on Tuesday showed Zimbabwe would fail to meet its targeted harvest this year, further highlighting the plight of an economy gripped by hyper-inflation.

"Maize is there (in Zambia) ... but we are having problems moving it," Mugabe told about 8000 party supporters during a campaign rally in Mahusekwa, a rural settlement 70km south of the capital Harare.

"We sought permission from the Zambian government to send our people to load the maize into trucks because we have already paid for it," said Mugabe.

"We have 150,000 tonnes in Zambia and more than 300,000 tonnes in Malawi and a few thousands from South Africa. We have an emergency because we have areas that face shortages."

Mugabe also promised to tackle escalating prices of basic goods, review the salaries of teachers who frequently strike over low pay, and give more equipment to farmers resettled under a controversial land reform programme.

Economists say the government's seizure of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks has deepened the economic crisis.

The March 29 election presents Mugabe with one of the biggest challenges to his rule since taking office in 1980.

Former Finance Minister Simba Makoni was expelled from the ruling ZANU-PF last month after deciding to run against Mugabe as an independent. He has been backed by senior party politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa, a major blow to Mugabe.

The defections may have bruised Mugabe, a former liberation hero Western foes accuse of human rights abuses and ruining the country's economy, allegations he denies.

But the wily 84-year-old leader could still capitalise on the opposition's failure to unite, analysts say.

Makoni has suggested he has the backing of many senior ZANU-PF officials but there is no sign of this. Most party officials have lined up to publicly back Mugabe.

"You do not just fall from nowhere and declare yourself a presidential candidate. That is what Makoni did. The power of leadership comes from the people," Mugabe told his rally.

His other main challenger is long-time rival Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the biggest faction of the divided main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

All three election candidates have promised to tackle the economic crisis but they have produced few concrete proposals to ease hardships worsening by the day.

While the campaign hots up, ordinary Zimbweans are more concerned with chronic food and fuel shortages and the world's highest inflation rate of over 100,000 per cent.

Reuters

Like Robert Mugabe is ever going to let free elections ever take place in Zimbabwe while he is alive...

[OMEN]

Iran on Wednesday rejected a call by world powers for more nuclear talks with their envoy and said it would in future discuss its uranium enrichment programme only with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Tehran also brushed off a third round of sanctions imposed on it on Monday by the UN Security Council over its refusal to suspend enrichment, saying its economy would not be affected.

In Vienna, Britain, France and Germany told governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran's record of cooperation with IAEA inspectors was "abysmal" - a much harsher judgment than that reached by the watchdog itself.

The IAEA wants to learn the true scope of Iran's nuclear programme. A Feb 22 IAEA report said improved Iranian cooperation had helped inspectors resolve all but one question about its past work, but Iran had not explained intelligence on alleged explosives and missile studies applicable to atom bombs.

The three EU powers sponsored more extensive Security Council sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic on Monday.

They, together with the United States, Russia and China, also said they wanted EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, to try to reopen talks on offers of incentives for Iran to halt its work.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected the idea.

"From now on, our nuclear issue is with the agency (IAEA) only and we will not negotiate with anyone outside the agency about Iran's nuclear issue," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying in his first reaction to new sanctions.

A senior Iranian official said Ahmadinejad meant Tehran would accept no more talks with the EU based on their demand for a nuclear halt in exchange for trade benefits and a halt to sanctions. "This carrot and stick policy does not work with us. So they should review their policy," he told Reuters.

Iran was, however, ready to discuss issues such as regional security, trade or nuclear power plants, said the official, who asked not to be named due to political sensitivities.

At the IAEA board of governors meeting, the "EU-3" countries cast the recent agency report on Iran in a more negative light.

IAEA Director Mohamed ElBaradei had said only one issue of nuclear proliferation concern remained to be clarified, and the rest were "no longer outstanding" - a position he said was "obviously encouraging."

"(ElBaradei's) report leaves our three countries in no doubt that Iran's record in complying with these requirements remains abysmal," the three said in a speech presented by British IAEA Ambassador Simon Smith to the 35-nation board.

An IAEA briefing for diplomats last week, highlighting intelligence about nuclear "weaponisation" work Iran has dismissed as fabricated, underlined Tehran's "record of delay and obfuscation" in dealing with IAEA inquiries, Smith said.

"As long as Iran's choice remains one of non-cooperation, we for our part will remain determined to demonstrate the costs and consequences of that choice," he added, alluding to sanctions.

The Islamic Republic's IAEA ambassador said the latest Security Council sanctions would have no effect on Iran's "exclusively peaceful nuclear activities".

But most on the 35-nation IAEA Board, while recognising that information Iran had provided had eased some concerns about past activity, said Tehran had much more to do to clean its slate.

They pointed in particular to intelligence data, much of it from a laptop smuggled out of Iran by a defector, suggesting links between processing uranium for nuclear fuel, testing high explosives and modifying a missile cone for an atomic payload.

In Geneva, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the new sanctions would not affect the Iranian economy. "Within the last year we have signed and concluded economic contracts with so many companies from around the world," he told reporters.

Asian and other firms continue to sign energy deals with Iran. But European executives say it has become increasingly difficult for Iranian firms and their Western partners to open letters of credit for imports into the country.

Reuters

[Stamkos]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush endorsed Sen. John McCain for president on Wednesday, saying the presumptive Republican nominee has the "character, courage and perseverance" to lead the country.

McCain thanked the president for his support and the work he has done in the Oval Office.

"I appreciate his endorsement, and I appreciate his service to our country," said McCain, adding that he wanted Bush at his side as much as possible on the campaign trail.

"Whatever he wants me to do, I want him to win," Bush said, who was challenged by McCain for the GOP nomination in 2000. But he said the 2008 run for the Oval Office was not his battle.

"It's not about me. I've done my bit," Bush said.

Addressing the calls for change in the presidential campaign, Bush said McCain would be steadfast to one of his administration's policies.

"He's not gonna change when it comes to taking on the enemy," Bush said of the senator from Arizona.

[Stamkos]

(CNN) -- An explosion destroyed a home in suburban Pittsburgh on Wednesday, killing an elderly man and severely injuring his grandchild, authorities said.

The explosion was reported about 1:30 p.m. on Mardi Gras Drive in Plum Borough, about 15 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Several neighboring homes were damaged, fire officials said.

The victims were Richard Leith, 64, who was babysitting his grandchild in the home, according to John J. Smith, an investigator with the Allegheny County medical examiner's office. Both were transported to local hospitals, though Leith died later in the afternoon.

The condition of the child, who was treated at Children's Hospital, was unknown, Smith said. Leith's autopsy would be conducted on Thursday, he added.

It is unclear what caused the explosion.

Dave Heiser, a neighbor, told CNN that he was home when he heard the explosion. "I thought my house blew up. My windows were blown out. I went outside and debris was falling from the sky," he said.

[OMEN]

John Howard has launched a spirited defence of his legacy, breaking his silence following last year's election loss.

While his coalition colleagues have been junking his policies since being tipped out of office last November, the former prime minister used a speech to a conservative US think tank to attack the Rudd government over industrial relations and Iraq.

He condemned the new government's decision to withdraw combat troops from Iraq and its rollback of his workplace relations laws.

"That will be a mistake," Mr Howard told the American Enterprise Institute's annual dinner in Washington.

"It will be the first time in 25 years that a major economic reform in Australia has been reversed.

"In particular, bringing back the old unfair dismissal laws will stifle employment growth amongst small businesses."

Mr Howard was guest of honour at the dinner, where he was presented with the Irving Kristol award, named after the father of neoconservatism.

He entered the room to a standing ovation from the 1,400-strong audience, including former United Nations ambassador John Bolton, Vice President Dick Cheney's wife Lynne, and former World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz.

Despite their close friendship, US President George W Bush did not attend the dinner, nor did any member of the Bush administration.

Mr Howard was introduced by institute trustee James Wilson as "John Winston Howard, stalwart all-rounder of politics and policy, who made good government a popular cause and advanced Australia fair and free".

Since the election loss, the Liberal-National coalition has battled to regroup, declaring Work Choices dead, reversing its opposition to ratifying the Kyoto protocol on climate change and agreeing with the troop withdrawal from Iraq.

But Mr Howard stood up for his 11-year-old government's legacy, saying it had left Australia in a much stronger position than when they took office in 1996.

"I speak to you tonight as a continuing and unapologetic advocate of the broad conservative cause, but restlessly conscious, as I know you will be, that the battle of ideas is never completely won," he said.

"I'm disappointed that Australia's battlegroup will be withdrawing from southern Iraq in June as one of the new Labor government's election commitments, rather than making a greater contribution to training the Iraqis to maintain their own security.

"The Iraqi people desperately need the time and space created by the surge to sustain the tentative political progress we are now seeing.

"And it would be a tragedy if those gains were surrendered now by premature drawdowns."

Mr Howard criticised the Australian media for concentrating on bad news from Iraq, rather than highlighting advances, and took aim at the Rudd government for regarding Afghanistan as the central front in the war on terrorism.

"While it may be politically convenient, this view is profoundly naive and dangerous," he said.

"One only has to look at al-Qaeda's own words and actions to know that Iraq is every bit as much a major front in the war against terror as is Afghanistan. We simply cannot afford to lose in either."

It was Mr Howard's first speech since election night, and a sign of how he plans to supplement his generous parliamentary pension.

He has signed with the Washington Speakers Bureau, and AEI foreign policy chief Danielle Pletka said Mr Howard's election loss did not make him a less valuable speaker.

"Let me just remind people that Winston Churchill was also defeated. This is what happens in democracies - leaders are defeated," Ms Pletka told ABC radio.

AAP

[OMEN]

Israel and the Palestinians may resume peace talks this week, Israeli media reported, but progress looked set to hinge on stemming bloodshed in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

The two sides agreed under pressure from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to resume the US-backed talks after the Palestinians suspended them in protest of an Israeli offensive in Gaza that killed more than 125 people.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert signalled willingness to stop attacks after the five-day offensive, which killed many civilians in the territory, if the Islamist group Hamas stopped firing rockets into Israel.

Hamas's Western-backed rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, had said he would not return to statehood talks with Olmert until Israel reached a ceasefire in Gaza.

Rice finished a three-day troubleshooting visit to the region on Wednesday by dispatching an envoy to Cairo, a key player in trying to broker calm.

Palestinian officials said Egyptian mediator Omar Suleiman would present Israel and Hamas with a truce proposal including a mutual cessation of hostilities and Israel's assent for key border crossings to open. Suleiman is due in Israel next week.

The United States hopes negotiations could result in an accord before US President George W Bush leaves office next January.

Israel's Haaretz daily quoted Israeli officials as saying "junior representatives" of the negotiating teams may meet as early as Thursday.

Israel called its push into Gaza a response to rocket strikes by Hamas. A rocket killed an Israeli civilian last week and two soldiers died fighting Gaza gunmen.

Hamas, who opposes the peace talks with Israel, routed forces loyal to the Western-backed Abbas to seize the Gaza Strip in June.

Hamas was cool to Olmert's overture, though its rocket fire has largely abated since Israeli troops withdrew from the coastal territory on Monday.

Hamas says attacks from Gaza, including rockets fired by its own militants and others, are a response to Israeli military operations in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank and would end if Israel stopped all such activity and lifted its blockade.

About 290 rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel in the past week, the Israeli army said.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Australian tourists briefly held hostage in China by a lone man armed with explosives told of their ordeal as Canberra urged holidaymakers to heed travel warnings ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

The man attacked a group of 10 Australian travel agents visiting the northwest city of Xi'an, famed as home of the Terracotta Warriors, on Wednesday before he was shot dead by a police sniper.

"He was pacing up and down the bus, they couldn't understand what he was saying. Then he turned around, opened up his jacket and he had a bomb strapped to him," said Sue Wynne, a friend of hostage Rhiannon Dunkley, after speaking to her.

Nine of the hostages were released by the man, but a 48-year-old woman was held captive for several hours before the gunman was killed.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said there was nothing to suggest the Australians were deliberately targeted and the motive for the attack remained unclear.

"We've asked for a full briefing to try to understand the motivation," Smith told journalists in Melbourne.

The travel agents were on an educational tour to Beijing, Xi'an and Shanghai, organised by a Sydney-based travel wholesale company, when the attack took place.

As the Australians boarded flights for home from Shanghai on Thursday, the company's General Manager Jimmy Liu said China was a safe destination for the Olympics in August and described the attack as "very rare".

Smith said Australian travel danger warnings for China were set at a very low level, but urged travellers planning trips to the country for the Olympics to read them for their security.

"This is an unusual event for China and the Chinese authorities are no doubt putting their minds to the motivation behind it," Smith said.

Australian foreign ministry advice for China warns that foreigners have been assaulted and robbed, "particularly in popular expatriate gathering areas".

The official Xinhua news agency said police believed the man was named Xia Tao and was a worker in Xi'an. Police investigators did not offer an explanation for the attack.

China has been preparing for an influx of foreign visitors for the Beijing Olympics, and the government has been at pains to highlight the security steps it is taking.

"I don't view this case as an embarrassment to China. Such things happen in every country and what matters is how you handle it," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

Reuters

[OMEN]

Sri Lanka's government is responsible for widespread abductions and disappearances as it fights a new phase in a 25-year civil war with the Tamil Tigers, Human Rights Watch said, calling for a UN monitoring mission.

Rights groups have reported hundreds of abductions, disappearances and killings blamed on one side or the other since the civil war, which has killed nearly 70,000 people since 1983, resumed in 2006 as a truce collapsed on the ground.

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa, once a rights advocate, has now led his government to become one of the world's worst perpetrators of forced disappearances," Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Elaine Pearson said in a statement, launching a 241-page report.

The report, entitled "Recurring nightmare: State responsibility for disappearances and abductions in Sri Lanka", features interviews with relatives of 'disappeared', some of whom describe how police had paid visits shortly before abductions.

Others describe relatives disappearing after being interrogated at gunpoint by police in broad daylight, or being bundled into white vans by unidentified gunmen. Police then deny their relative has been arrested.

"We absolutely deny the exaggerated allegations reflected in the Human Rights Watch Report," said Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona. "The report talks about a situation which is getting worse by the minute, and I think it is not only unfair, it is malicious.

"There are all these allegations and they are not exactly serious allegations. They are concocted in our view or exaggerated in order to give the country a bad name," he added. "Over the last 12 months, the situation has improved considerably. . ., a result of measures put in place by the government."

After formally scrapping a 6-year truce with the Tigers in a wider bid to win the war militarily, Rajapaksa's government banished Nordic truce monitors who had blamed troops and rebels for repeated abuses.

The former Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission enraged the government by accusing state security forces of massacring 17 local staff of international aid group Action Contre la Faim in 2006 – the worst attack on aid workers since the 2003 bomb attack on the UN office in Baghdad.

The government has rejected calls for a UN human rights monitoring mission, and has publicly vilified UN officials who have questioned its rights record.

Rajapaksa himself has dismissed reports of abductions and disappearances, some from areas under tight military control, as propaganda aimed at tarnishing his government's reputation.

Some government officials have said reported disappearances and abductions were cases of love-struck youths eloping or going on holiday.

Hundreds of relatives of Sri Lankan civilians who have disappeared as the war has escalated demand answers.

"So long as soldiers and police can commit disappearances with impunity, this horrific crime will continue," Human Rights Watch's Pearson said. "The Sri Lankan government's rejection of a UN monitoring mission reflects badly on its commitment to human rights.

"While the government dawdles, many Sri Lankans will continue to pay the price."

Reuters