COLOMBO. Dec 31: Tamil guerillas raided an army Island base today, killing four soldiers and losing three of their own men as Srl Lanka's President Chandrika Ku-maratunga renewed an offer of peace talks, officials said, reports AFP.

Gunmen of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) carried out the pre-dawn raid on the Buffalo Island army detachment in the eastern district of Bat-tlcaloa. triggering a heavy fire fight, official sources said.

"The Tigers managed to kill four sentries and wound another three soldiers. At least three Tigers were killed in the counter-offensive and their bodies were recovered by the army." an official said.

An LTTE guerilla strapped with explosives had set himself off against an army truck in the same district but failed to kill any soldiers in a Kamikaze-style attack less

than a day earlier.

The stepped-up attacks came as President Ku-maratunga in remarks published today said that the government will have no alternative but to militarily crush the LTTE if the rebels do not enter peace talks.

"It is up to the LTTE to come for negotiations. "Kumaratunga said in an interview with the state-run Sunday Observer. "However, if they carry put attacks, we will not hesitate to defend the people and the country."

Kumaratunga announced last month that the LTTE should make a "substantial surrender of arms" if they are to resume talks with the government in a bid to end the protracted conflict which has claimed over 50,000 lives since 1972.

For their part, the LTTE maintains that the army should withdraw from the northern town of Jaffna

which was captured from the rebels earlier this month after nearly 50 days of fighting. Some 500 soldiers and nearly 2,000 rebels died In the battle.

LITE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran said In a message to coincide with his birthday last month that the army should pull out from all areas wrested from his control and doors to peace will remain "firmly shut" until then.

The military says it will not budge from Jaffna, the capital of a de factor state the LITE had run in the northern peninsula for nearly five years before the army stormed in with its biggest ground offensive launched on October 17.

President Kumaratunga said areas still under rebel control In the Island's north would be taken either militarily or politically.