The Government awarded $2, 000 in two separate grants to the Eelam Tamil Association of Victoria to fund a dinner dance and to help with administrative expenses, a news report on the newspaper's websit said.

The report said: "The move has ignited passions in the 200,000-strong Sri Lankan community because of alleged ties between the ETAV and the Tamil Tigers and claims that expat Tamils are funding the Tigers through donations.

The grants are part of a $500,000 programme to provide funds for a host of ethnic groups and were awarded in July by Health Minister Daniel Andrews, who was then in charge of multicultural affairs.

The ETAV is regarded as a local front for the Tamil Tigers by Sri Lankan government sources, sections of the Sinhalese community and some in the Tamil community. The claim is hotly denied by ETAV president Murugupillai Sivakumar.

One official source told The Australian ETAV was a Tamil Tiger front: "They are raising money, lobbying, holding demonstrations (for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)."

Ranjith Soysa of the pro-Sinhalese group SPUR also accused ETAV of raising money for the Tamil Tigers.

"They are collecting money to help the LTTE cause," Mr Soysa said. "They are definitely connected to the LTTE; it's a front for the LTTE."

Mr Sivakumar denied the claims and said the association ran a network of Tamil language schools and any funds it raised remained in Australia.

"The association is involved in community activities," Mr Sivakumar said. "The fundraising is for the running of the association itself. Our records are kept and they get audited every year.

"We have no dealings outside the Australian (Sri Lankan) community - but I wouldn't put it past the Sri Lankan Government or the Sinhalese community to say such things."

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting the Sri Lankan Government for control of part of the north of the country since the 1970s and both sides are accused of deploying terrorist-style tactics. Many Sri Lankans of Tamil descent support the aims of the LTTE if not the methods, which have included suicide bombings against civilian and military targets.

The conflict between secessionist Tamils in the north and the Sri Lankan Government in the predominantly Sinhalese south has created an equivalent divide within sections of the Australian Sri Lankan community.

The LTTE is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by more than 32 countries including Britain and the European Union, but not by Australia.

Three members of Australia's Tamil community have been charged with terrorism offences for allegedly supporting the LTTE through two local fundraising bodies - the Tamil Co-ordinating Committee and the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation. They are facing a committal hearing.

At least one member of the TCC, Sen Thooran, is also involved as a member and past-president of the ETAV. Mr Thooran denies the ETAV is linked to the LTTE.

(Courtesy : The Island)