COLOMBO, Feb. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The international truce monitoring group in Sri Lanka said Tuesday that slaying of a top Tamil Tiger leader is no violation of the three year old ceasefire but expressed fears that it could have serious repercussions on the process.

    Helen Olafsdottir, spokesperson for the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), told a local television that gunning down of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) political leader for the eastern province E. Kousalyan could have implications on the on-going ceasefire.

    Kousalyan was murdered Monday night in an ambush blamed on the rival Karuna faction of the Tamil Tigers.

    The government condemned the killing and said that all concerned must take care not to upset the truce agreement.

    The Tigers have blamed an unnamed paramilitary group working along side the government troops for the killing.

    The eastern political leader's killing came ahead of a planned visit by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the Japanese international bank to the LTTE territory to discuss the post-Tsunami relief and rehabilitation funding in the LTTE areas.

    The rebel sources said the meeting came to be canceled due to the situation prevailing after the killing of Kousalyan.

    The main opposition United National Party legislator Rajitha Senaratne told reporters the killing which had happened in a government controlled area in the east has endangered the truce.

    He said the Tiger leader had been unarmed while traveling through the government controlled area hence the government had a responsibility to give security cover as outlined in the truce agreement.

    Brigadier Daya Ratnayake, the military spokesman, said the LTTEeastern political leader's travel through the government area had not been intimated in advance to the military as required by the truce agreement. Enditem