Senior diplomats from the United States, European Union, Japan and Norway issued a statement expressing "alarm" at the ongoing fighting that they said has led to "significant loss of life and widespread human rights violations".
"We condemn the continued and systematic cease-fire violations by the government of Sri Lanka as well as by the LTTE," said the statement, read out by US Under-secretary of State Nicholas Burns and referring to the rebel Tamil Tiger movement.
The four-party group went on to "particularly condemn the LTTE for initiating hostilities from populated areas, and the government of Sri Lanka for firing into such vulnerable areas and killing and wounding innocent civilians".
They called on both sides to set up demilitarised zones to protect civilians displaced by the fighting.
More than 3,300 people have been killed in the past year in fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers, confounding efforts brokered by Norway to revive a truce agreed in February 2002 following 30 years of civil war that left more than 60,000 dead.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006