Air Force chief Roshan Goonatilleke said he was confident of finding the elusive leader who is believed to be holed up in the island's north where he runs a mini-state.

The comments, in the Sunday Observer newspaper, come less than two weeks after a key rebel aide was killed in a government air strike.

"I do not think it is that difficult for us to get at him now," Goonatilleke told the newspaper under the headline: "Sri Lanka air force goes all out for Prabhakaran - Commander."

"We will find him somehow soon. We need a great deal of patience."

Sri Lankan war planes bombed a Tamil Tiger location and killed political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan and six others on November 2 as part of a campaign to re-capture territory from the rebels.

Thamilselvan was regarded as the public face of the separatist group and the point-man for Norwegian peace brokers and and other international diplomats involved in the island's faltering peace efforts.

The guerrillas have vowed to avenge the killing of Thamilselvan and the authorities have stepped up security across the island fearing reprisals.

Fighting has also escalated along the frontlines separating the territory controlled by the Tigers in the north of the island in recent weeks.

The defence ministry said a civilian was killed and another wounded in a roadside blast in the deep south of the island on Saturday, an area where there had been suspected rebel activity in the past two weeks.

Security officials said they believed that such attacks could be an attempt to draw out troops from the island's north where they are locked in combat with the Tigers.

A Norwegian-arranged truce between the government and the rebels began falling apart in December 2005. Thousands have been killed in the island's drawn out Tamil separatist conflict.

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