The international truce monitors in Sri Lanka traveled to the north on Friday in a bid to restore calmness in the area following the build-up of tension between the military and the Tamil Tigers, officials said.

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

At least 14 people were injured in the northern town of Mannar on 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 the government controlled areas in celebrationof the group's so-called Heroes Week celebrations.

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

The Tiger proxy party legislators called for a full probe into what they alleged army attacks on civilians.

SLMM spokesman Oskar Solnes said flag hoisting would be regarded as a violation of the ongoing cease-fire agreement between the government and the LTTE reached in 2002.

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

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

Source: Xinhua