The Tiger chief's directive came as the army kept up pressure in the Vanni area threatening to advance from Mannar to Pooneryn, placing the LTTE in a very awkward position strategically, the Island newspaper reported today.``It is not clear how the LTTE hopes to achieve this aim now, having failed to do so for the last four years,'' it said. The Nepalese police on July 2 detained seven Sri Lankan Tamils in Kathmandu, days ahead of Kumaratunga's four-day visit.

The seven arrested had aroused suspicions by staying in Nepal for several weeks, changing hotels frequently. It is not known whether the seven detained have any connections with the LTTE, but the Nepalese government was taking no chances. Prabhakaran had sent several `BlackTiger' suicide squads to Colombo in 1995, 1996 and 1997, but his attempts to assassinate the President were foiled by alert police and intelligence units in the planning stages.

Three such squads had planned to attack the President as she travelled to various functions, with suicide cadres of fling themselves at her car and blow themselves up.st of her convoy. The President's security has been tightened with more bodyguards and dummy convoys being used to confuse would-be assassins.