We confirm that four Sea Tigers were released and handed over to the LTTE.

Initial reports from the L.T.T.E. indicated one of their vessels were involved in an incident at sea, but they later said they had no involvement.

We cannot rule out that it was someone trying to scare us away. We are not pulling out -- it would send a strong message that if anyone threw a firecracker in our direction we would leave.

The situation could have spun out of control and the international community is working very hard to convince both parties that war is not an option.

Already people are dying in large numbers, so the situation is unacceptable and there is no way we can continue like this. The parties need to work their way out of the deadlock instead of speculating and pondering over why and who carried out the attacks.

It is just an attempt to see if they can break the deadlock.