The Sri Lankan army killed most of the LTTE's leaders when it defeated the rebels last month [AFP]

In a recorded statement, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the LTTE international relations chief, said the organisation would continue to pursue its aim of a separate Tamil state despite the death of its leader.

"The struggle of people of Tamil Eelam [the separate state the LTTE fought for] has reached a new state," he said.

"It is time now for us to move forward with our political vision towards our freedom."

The announcement comes nearly a month after Velupillai Prabhakaran, the LTTE leader, and most of his deputies, were killed by government forces in an offensive that bought the island’s 26-year civil war to an end.

According to rights groups, thousands of civilians in the north of the country were also killed in the fighting.

An estimated 250,000 Tamil refugees are currently living in military-run camps for the internally displaced that have been criticised as internment camps.

Pathmanathan, who worked as the LTTE's main international arms smuggler, said a "provisional transnational government of Tamil Eelam" was being set up.

He also said that Rudrakumaran Vishwanathan, their overseas-based legal adviser, would head a committee to decide a course of action that would be "within democratic principles".

It is not clear from where Pathmanathan, who is wanted by Interpol for his arms smuggling operations, issued the recorded message.

Diaspora support

Some 250,000 Tamil refugees remain in what critics call internment camps [AFP]

Meanwhile, the pro-LTTE Tamilnet website called for a "democratic and inclusive" organisation to continue a separatist agenda.

"The need of the time now is the metamorphosis of the existing infrastructure into a democratic and inclusive transnational government of Eelam Tamils," Tamilnet said.

"While the government-in-exile is a conventional phenomenon that needs a host country, the transnational government is a novel experiment that has no precedence," it said, while characterising the new set-up as a "symbolic" new start for the LTTE.

The Tamil Tigers had been fighting for more than 25 years for a homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east of the country, saying they were marginalised by the ruling majority Sinhalese government.

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