(LeN-2007 May 01, 7.30pm)

Both the Australian and British governments have renewed its travel warnings for Sri Lanka following increased unrest in the island nation.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has reissued its travel advisory, which remained at the second-highest level, warning Australians to reconsider the need to travel to Sri Lanka amid the conflict between government and LTTE.

"There has been a significant escalation in the number of serious incidents of politically motivated violence, including in tourist areas in the centre and south of the country" the report said.

The Australian government says the security situation could deteriorate further without warning in sri lanka and that it also raised the possibility that Colombo's international airport could be closed at short notice due to the civil strife.

It also says that there is a danger of kidnapping for ransom of foreign nationals in Sri Lanka, including in Colombo.

Meanwhile the British Government too has reviewed and reissued travel warning to British citizens traveling to Sri Lanka in general and the North and East of the country in particular, in the light of the latest incident in which LTTE used aircrafts ob 29 April to drops bombs in targets in Colombo.

The latest travel warning by the issued by the British Foreign and Commonwealth office pointed out that on 29 April 2007 the LTTE used light aircraft to drop bombs on targets in Colombo.

Although the warning said that little damage was caused by this incident, and a similar raid on 26 March on the military area of Bandaranaike International Airport caused disruption in Colombo city and at the airport.

The warning went on to point out that some airlines are reviewing their flight schedules to Sri Lanka. British Foreign and Commonwealth office urged travelers to check the status of their flights to and from Bandaranaike International Airport with their carrier.