Nominations closed on Friday for two of the five provincial councils that are due to go to the polls in August, but Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake made no announcement of holding the ballot.

``First the government will have to impose a State of Emergency throughout the country and postpone the poll under Emergency regulations,'' said a government leader who did not want to be identified.

There are no local elections due in the North and East of the country where the government has already imposed a State of Emergency as government forces battle Tamil rebels.

Sources said the government had originally sought the help of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) to support a law amendment delaying the vote by six months.

However, the UNP demanded that in return of itssupport there be a presidential election in August or September, two years ahead of schedule.

Last month, Justice Minister G L Peiris made a case for postponing the Council elections arguing that police would not be able to provide adequate security for the ballot.

The UNP, voted out of power in 1994 after ruling Sri Lanka for 17 years, sees the council elections as an acid test for Kumaratunga and a stepping stone for the 2000 AD national polls.

The council elections could have also been seen as a referendum on the government's radical power sharing plan aimed at ending the country's drawn out Tamil separatist war which has claimed more than 55,000 lives since 1972.

Kumaratunga in August 1995 unveiled the plan, which seeks to turn the country into a de facto federal state in exchange for ethnic peace, but has been unable to push it through Parliament.

Her People's Alliance lacks the mandatory two-thirds majority in Parliament to rewrite the Constitution, and is dependent on the UNP which hasrejected the idea.

Meanwhile, Tamil Tiger guerrillas admitted losing 10 of their fighters in an accidental explosion while the Defence ministry said on Sunday that 11 more rebels were killed by troops.

The separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said over their clandestine Voice of Tigers radio that they lost 10 fighters in a blast in the rebel-held area of Wanni on Saturday.

The rebel radio gave no details of the incident, a day before `Black Tiger Day' which marks the 11th anniversary of their first suicide bombing.

The Defence ministry said in a statement that soldiers had killed 11 members of the LTTE in four separate confrontations in the North on Saturday.