COLOMBO, June 27, 2006 (AFP) - Sri Lanka on Tuesday deployed more troops and threw up roadblocks in Colombo as the government tightened security following the assassination of a top army general, police and witnesses said.

Heavily armed soldiers took up positions around the capital while police stepped up random vehicle searches, a senior police officer told AFP.

"There is a greater military deployment to assist the police with the security arrangements," the officer said.

The new measures are part of the government's decision to bring back a security clampdown that was in place before the February 2002 ceasefire between Colombo and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The military announced the move Monday night, shortly after Major General Parami Kulatunga, the army's number three commander, was killed by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber on a motorcycle who rammed the general's car.

"Accordingly, the troops serving at all points including new ones will conduct thorough checking with immediate effect after re-introducing road barriers and other checkpoints, as deemed necessary," a military statement said.

It did not specify what measures would be brought back.

Sri Lanka had earlier enforced a strict permit system to screen residents leaving rebel-held areas to travel to the rest of the island.

The process greatly restricted travel freedoms.

Sri Lanka is currently under a state of emergency imposed after the Tigers were blamed for the August 2005 assassination of foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

The emergency gives sweeping powers to the police and security forces to carry out search operations and detain suspects for as long as a month without charge.

The island had already tightened security following the April assassination attempt against army chief Sarath Fonseka.

In Monday's attack, a suicide bomber rammed Kulatunga's car with a motorcycle as the general was stopped in traffic near a bridge in a Colombo suburb, killing himself, the general and three others.

Police said the Criminal Investigations Department was investigating the killing, while the military launched its own inquiry into whether there was a breach of security.

The bomber was apparently able to ride parallel to the general's convoy for more than a kilometer (half mile), despite the presence of security guards in a separate vehicle.

Kulatunga's assassination was a carbon copy of the killing of then-navy chief Clancey Fernando, who died when a bomb-laden motorcycle slammed into his car in November 1992.

More than 60,000 people have been killed since the island's Tamil separatist conflict began in 1972.

Norwegian-led peace efforts have remained deadlocked since April 2003.

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