Sri Lanka rejects U.N. cease-fire plea

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, April 18 (UPI) -- Sri Lanka says it will not extend a lull in its military push to finish off the Tamil Tigers' rebellion to spare civilians caught in a safe zone.

Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse says the country has rejected an appeal from the United Nations to refrain from entering an 8-square-mile coastal area in the Mullaitivu district where the remnants of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are cornered, the BBC reported Saturday.

The government had instituted a temporary truce in its drive to destroy the LTTE to give 50,000 to 100,000 civilians trapped inside the zone a chance to escape, but the rebels did not meet international demands to release the civilians during the lull, which ended Tuesday night, Rajapakse told the British broadcaster.

He said he told Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "We cannot extend our decision to restrict offensive military operations because there was no result during the previous halt in the fighting."

The LTTE has said the temporary cease-fire was merely an "act of hoodwink" to deceive the international community, calling instead for an internationally supervised truce that could pave way for political solutions, the BBC said.