COLOMBO, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - Troops in Sri Lanka have blocked a key supply route used by the Tamil Tigers in possible preparation for a delayed major assault on the rebels' northern heartland, military experts said Monday.

The military has been trying to break into the stronghold, the Wanni, for weeks but took some nearby areas on Saturday, including the coastal village of Silavattura, officials said.

"This was not the big push. What the army has captured is a key transit point of the Tigers," a top military official said, declining to be named. "They used this location to smuggle in supplies from India."

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) indirectly admitted that the military had taken the coastal village when they accused security forces of killing nine civilians fleeing the military onslaught.

Aid officials said at least a dozen civilians were killed in weekend fighting in the district of Mannar. Both the rebels and government forces blamed each other for the civilian deaths.

Retired army brigadier general Vipul Boteju said the weekend clashes could be a warm up for a bigger offensive aimed at dismantling the mini-state run by the rebels in Wanni.

"This may have a psychological impact. It can also block a supply line, but it does not signal the start of the big push to Wanni," Boteju told AFP.

He argued that the military lacked men and firepower to undertake a bigger drive in terrain that favoured the guerrillas.

"The military needs new aircraft and weapons. If they rush in without that, the cost will be heavy," he said, adding that troops were thinly spread after recent territorial gains in the east of the island.

Defence analyst Namal Perera noted that security forces changed direction and took on an easier target after failing for weeks to make a push into Wanni.

"It was a safer option for the military because the Tigers did not have a big presence in Silavattura, but it is still an important location for the Tigers," Perera said.

He said monsoon rains could delay the bigger military drive.

The Tamil Tigers, who lost their final bastion of Thoppigala in the east in July, had moved their fighters to strengthen defences in Wanni where they have their own police, courts and civil administration.

Ranga Jayasuriya, a defence analyst for Lakbima News, said the rebels were also bracing for an offensive and were most likely to try and retake the northern peninsula of Jaffna, which they lost to the army in 1995.

"A major Tiger offensive would be waged for Jaffna, even though the threat of a limited offensive in the form of a counter attack on troops operating in Wanni and Weli Oya (in the northeast) is equally high," Jayasuriya wrote.

Sri Lanka's state media has also published remarks from Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama during an overseas tour last week that Colombo had no plans for a major military drive.

Military sources said the planned offensive was on hold partly because security forces were unable to replicate the tactics used in the east.

"In the east, there are no clear boundaries. That helped the army to sneak into areas dominated by the Tigers and stage attacks," a top officer said. "That can't be done in the north where there is a physical boundary line."

The LTTE spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiriyan told reporters recently that the loss of territory in the east was a setback for them, but they were strengthening their forces in the island's north.

A February 2002 truce arranged by peace broker Norway is now in tatters and some 5,400 people have been killed in fighting since December 2005 according to government estimates.

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