(AP)- - Tamil Tiger rebels posing as fishermen blew up two of their boats today in the first suicide attack to target an area of Sri Lanka's southern coast popular with tourists.

Sir Lanka's government said at least one sailor had been killed, another two were missing and at least 14 civilians and 12 sailors were wounded.

Two of the navy's fast boats and another small boat were damaged in the attack, in the harbour of the resort town of Galle. Police imposed an open-ended curfew in the area.
Hours after the attack, the military launched air strikes on Tamil Tiger targets in eastern Batticaloa. The Tigers said in a statement the air force attack on rebel-controlled areas had killed one civilian and wounded two others, including a 10-year-old boy.

A Sir Lankan military spokesman, Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, confirmed the air attacks but denied they had targeted civilian areas.

The rebels did not make any immediate comment, but the pro-rebel TamilNet website reported that a 15-member rebel attack team had entered Galle harbour in five boats, three of which had exploded.

An Associated Press reporter in Galle said the town was calm but under heavy security. One resident said there had been an incident of people attacking a Tamil shop, but the violence had not spread. The resident said parents were taking their children home from school.

Keerethi de Silva, a senior Galle police superintendent, said: "A curfew is being imposed very strictly ... and no one can come into the city and cause damage."

The suicide bombing in Galle could signal a major shift for the Tamil Tiger rebels, whose decades-long campaign for a separate homeland for minority ethnic Tamils has largely focused on Sri Lanka's north and east, which they claim as their cultural heartland.

It could be a major blow to Sri Lanka's tourism industry, with peak season about to begin in Galle and its nearby beaches, a major draw for travellers.

Galle, 110 km south of the capital, Colombo, is home to Sri Lanka's main southern naval port.

The assailants blew up two of their boats after entering the harbour area posing as fishermen. The navy destroyed the rebels' remaining three boats, according to a defence ministry spokesman.

All the rebels were killed, but it was not immediately clear how many insurgents were aboard the boats, he said.

The attack was also expected to further damage peace efforts ahead of scheduled talks between the government and rebels, starting on October 28 in Switzerland.

Both sides this week committed themselves to the talks.

Sri Lanka's top security spokesman, Keheliya Rambukwella, accused the rebels of launching deadly attacks to provoke a backlash against ethnic Tamils that could help them win international sympathy ahead of the talks.

"We ask the people not to fall into the trap that has been laid," he told reporters.

A violent backlash by the majority Sinhalese against Tamil civilians could strengthen the Tigers' claim that the Tamil people can live in peace only if they achieve a separate homeland.

The attack was the second on the navy this week.

On Monday a rebel suicide bomber rammed a truck filled with explosives into a military bus convoy in central Sri Lanka, killing at least 95 sailors and wounding more than 150 others in the deadliest insurgent attack since a 2002 ceasefire temporarily halted the country's civil war.

Last Wednesday, fierce battles on the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula killed at least 129 soldiers and more than 200 rebels, and left hundreds of others wounded.

The upsurge in violence comes as Sri Lanka faces increasing international pressure to return to the negotiating table.

The Japanese peace envoy Yasushi Akashi was scheduled to hold talks with rebel leaders in the north today, while the Norwegian envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer arrived in Colombo yesterday for meetings with government and rebel officials.

The US envoy Richard Boucher will arrive in Sri Lanka tomorrow for a two-day visit.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for the Tamil minority in the north and east, citing decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese.

Prior to the 2002 ceasefire, some 65,000 people had been killed in the conflict.