COLOMBO, Jan 10, 2007 (AFP) - At least six Tamil rebels were killed in a confrontation between two rival factions in eastern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said Wednesday.

The bodies of four Tamil Tiger rebels were found by troops in the eastern Batticaloa district after a fight with a splinter group known as the "Karuna faction," the ministry said in a statement.

It said two of the dead were members of the Karuna group, led by V. Muralitharan, better known as Colonel Karuna. They were killed when the main Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas attacked them on Tuesday evening, it said.

The LTTE has accused the military of collaborating with the Karuna group to carry out attacks against the main rebel outfit, a charge the security forces deny.

Colonel Karuna led an unprecedented split in the Tamil rebel leadership in March 2004 and has since been leading a campaign against the Tiger guerrillas, especially in the island's restive eastern province.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist conflict in the past 35 years and diplomatic attempts to end the conflict politically have ended in failure.

Government troops and Tamil Tiger guerrillas have been trading attacks across the island's embattled northern and eastern regions with more than 3,800 people killed in the past year despite a truce in place since February 2002.

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