Aug. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka offered an amnesty to members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam hiding in the eastern region, which was taken over by the army last month after 14 years of fighting.

The offer will begin Sept. 1, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said in a statement issued by the government late yesterday. A total of 521 Tamil Tiger rebels have surrendered since the Eastern Province fell to security forces a month ago, the government said.

Rebels hiding in jungle areas will be tracked down and it ``would be a far better option to surrender,'' Wickramanayake said. They will be rehabilitated and given job training, he added.

The Tamil Tigers, fighting for a separate homeland in the north and east of the South Asian island nation of 20 million people, said last month their units are still operating in the Batticaloa area. Sri Lanka's government has pledged to hold elections and attract investors and tourists to the eastern region that has a 462-kilometer (287-mile) coastline.

Wickramanayake said the amnesty is being offered to ``misguided'' members of the LTTE, which he described as a ``ruthless terrorist group,'' the Media Center for National Security said on its Web site. The military's offensive in the east was also a humanitarian operation to free civilians being oppressed by the Tamil Tigers, he added.

The prime minister first announced the amnesty in an address in Horana at the weekend, the government said. He didn't say how long the offer will be in effect.

Telephone calls to the LTTE's headquarters at Kilinochchi in the north went unanswered early today.

Sea Battle

Army and navy units carried out attacks early yesterday after intercepting LTTE units trying to escape from the eastern region by crossing north of Trincomalee to the Wanni area, the Defense Ministry said. Navy vessels prevented LTTE boats reaching the coast for a possible attempt ``to pick up stranded eastern cadres,'' the ministry said on its Web site.

LTTE sea units drove the navy vessels away after more than four hours of fighting, the group said, according to a statement carried by TamilNet. The Tamil Tigers have a 4,000- member naval unit known as the Sea Tigers and about 12,000 land fighters. The group unveiled an air wing when light aircraft bombed areas near the capital, Colombo, in March and April.

Political Move

Irasiah Ilanthirayan, the LTTE's military spokesman, said in a July 24 telephone interview that Tamil Tiger forces are still operating in the east. The government is claiming victory in the east as a political move to boost President Mahinda Rajapaksa, he said.

The government wants the LTTE to return to peace talks, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said last month. As long as the group threatens civilians and attacks strategic and economic targets, the government will work to destroy its military capabilities, he added.

Sri Lanka and the LTTE held two rounds of talks in Geneva last year that failed to make any progress.

A cease-fire signed between the two sides in 2002 remains the basis for holding new peace negotiations, S.P. Thamilchelvan, head of the LTTE's political wing, said in an interview with TamilNet on June 25.

The accord, brokered by Norway, recognizes the de facto existence of a Tamil homeland with its own civil administration, defense force and judiciary, Thamilchelvan said.

Gunmen supported by the Sri Lankan army killed seven civilians in three attacks in the past three days in the Jaffna region in the north, TamilNet reported on its Web site yesterday, without saying where it obtained the information. The government denies the army backs any armed groups.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 14, 2007 02:17 EDT