COLOMBO: The LTTE hierarchy is reportedly undergoing a bout of anxiety about President Kumaratunga's sudden move last Tuesday to appoint senior officers of the Sri Lanka Army to coordinate the relief efforts in the Tsunami affected districts including the war torn North East which has a large presence of LTTE cadres.

The military headquarters in Colombo issued a press release on Tuesday stating that the District Coordinating Officers of the Armed Forces would co-ordinate all ongoing relief and rehabilitation work in respective districts along with the navy and the assistance of the air force.

Chief of Defence Staff and Navy commander Daya Sandagiri was appointed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga as the overall commander of the biggest relief operation in Sri Lanka's history.

The LTTE anxiety levels are apparently further heightened by the first deployment of US troops in the country including the east on Monday to carry out 'relief work' with more US troops expected shortly.

Reports from the north eastern Kilinochchi region where the LTTE runs its de facto government said that the guerrilla leadership was discussing whether or not to raise the matter with the Norwegian peace facilitators and the Scandanavian cease fire monitors. The move to deploy the US military has already received the endorsement of the Indian Government, according to diplomatic sources.

The LTTE members, which label President Kumaratunga's decision to entrust relief work to the military as 'inappropriate' say they are unhappy with the move despite the government military spokesperson Brigadier Daya Ratnayake stating that 'no major' problems were expected from the LTTE and that 'all the Sri Lankan and US troops would do is carry out humanitarian assistance.

"It is a move made out of a social concern. We will work together with the US troops and also the LTTE in matters relating to the social welfare of the displaced people," Brigadier Ratnayake, added, a day after the Sri Lankan armed forces began manning the refugee camps in eastern Amparai, Batticaloa and Trincomalee and northern Jaffna on Tuesday.

The handing over of relief operation to the military was following reports reaching the Presidential Secretariat that the distribution of the relief aid was chaotic and unequal.

Military analysts point out that the LTTE would see the move 'differently' stating that the feeling of insecurity by the Tamil Tigers is heightened after losing hundreds of its cadres and large amounts of high powered ammunition to the tidal waves.

The LTTE's loss to its sea tigers is not officially estimated but sources in the north east state that at least two hundred sea tiger cadres would have been killed when the Tsunami took the country by its deathly surprise.

"We do not see this aid structure as workable," Gajendran a Jaffna-based pro-LTTE parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said even after the government took a policy decision not to deploy any US troops in the pockets of the north east areas fully controlled by the LTTE.

His comments come after the LTTE political wing leader, S. P. Thamilchelvam, in an interview with the Jaffna-based Tamil newspaper, the Uthayan, stated that they welcomed government help as long as it was structured".

"The LTTE clearly wants the distribution of aid to be carried out by them as they feel that any military encroachment would destabilize their control on the north eastern regions", an NGO worker in Jaffna said.

However, despite the LTTE fears of military presence in the north east, the military, government and American embassy sources insist that the deployment of the troops here are 'solely for humanitarian operations'.

They claim that the arrival of the US troops was confirmed following an understanding reached between US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar soon after the Tsunami disaster.

According to US Ambassador Jeffrey Lunstead a further number of 1,400 marines would be assigned here for what he described as 'rebuilding work', following the arrival this week of two hundred US military personnel.

USS Bonhommie Richard, a multi-purpose assault ship, together with five Hovercraft and 20 helicopters have set up a logistics base in Southern Galle for operations in Sri Lanka and also the Maldives.

"There is likely to be a US base in the east which was the break water of the disaster and two other affected regions that we will decide upon later with the consultation of the Sri Lankan government," an official for the US embassy said stating that the number of US marines deployed in the region 'could increase'.

Meanwhile, the Scandanavian truce monitoring mission when contacted said that they would accept an LTTE complaint only if it was directly linked to the clauses in the Memorandum of Understanding between the government and the LTTE signed in February 2002.

However the truce monitors said they had received two complaints from the LTTE regarding setting fire to a house in northern Jaffna early this week which had been used as a camp for the displaced.

"We are looking into this complaint. It is only if there is a particular incident which effects the ceasefire that the LTTE can make a formal complaint," the SLMM representative said.

The usually US hostile Nationalistic Marxist party, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the coalition party of the Alliance government, known for its anti-LTTE stance, was co-operative towards the arrival of the US Marines.

"It is a time of crisis. We cannot refuse help at such a time," the JVP Publicity Secretary, Wimal Weerawanse told the press preferring to remain largely silent on any long term repercussions of the presence of the US troops and the large foreign representation in the country.

The past few months which saw tensions with the LTTE rapidly rising, has seen a dire change in the JVP Marxists with regard to America, shelving their earlier ani-white, anti-America stand to a more 'open' approach.