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The Sri Lankan tourist board has described the southern region as safe for tourists following a suicide bomb attack on a boat in the port of Galle.

The board's UK director, Jean-Marc Flambert, stressed that the attack targeted a navy base, not civilians.

'All has returned to normal', he said.

The attack, carried out by Tamil Tiger rebels just over a week before the sides in Sri Lanka's civil conflict were due to meet for talks in Geneva, is the first on the city in almost a decade.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice does steer British visitors away from north and east Sri Lanka, where Tamil Tigers incidents are more frequent.

But the FCO weas sanguine about yesterday's southern attack, noting only that the curfew instituted in Galle in the aftermath of the bombing may impinge on the hours tourists can go out.

A spokesman for the Association of British Travel Agents told Times Online Travel that, of the thousands of Britons currently visiting Sri Lanka, none had made calls expressing anxiety.

Sri Lanka's tourist industry is vital to rebuilding its economy and industry insiders hope to see tourists undeterred as visitor season peaks in December.


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