Peace broker Norway's talks with the four other members of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) opened in Oslo amid uncertainty over the role of foreign truce observers on the South Asian island, organisers said.

The meeting was called after the Tamil Tigers demanded that monitors from European Union nations Finland, Sweden and Denmark quit the mission, saying they could no longer be neutral following an EU ban on the Tigers.

The SLMM has suspended its monitoring of sea movements after a Tiger rebel attack last month saw the sinking of a Sri Lankan navy gunboat. SLMM said its monitors aboard another Sri Lankan navy craft had a narrow escape.

Five Sri Lankan sailors were killed in a battle off the island's north-western coast Wednesday, the same day major general Parami Kulatunga who was killed by a suspected Tiger suicide bomber was cremated.

More than 820 people have been killed in the latest upsurge in fighting in Sri Lanka's embattled northern and eastern regions confining an Oslo-brokered 2002 ceasefire to paper and raising doubts over Norway's role.

The London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International Thursday urged Sri Lanka to better protect civilians amid an upsurge in violence citing UN figures of tens of thousands displaced since April.

"The state's failure to provide adequate security and to ensure that attacks against civilians are prosecuted has resulted in widespread fear and panic," said Purna Sen, Amnesty's Asia-Pacific director.

"Almost every major attack in recent months has had a devastating ripple effect as people flee from their homes and villages in search of sanctuary."

A total of 39,883 people have been displaced in Sri Lanka's embattled north and east since April, according to United Nations figures.

With the worsening security situation, Norway has been struggling to get the parties back to the table.

"There is no question of Norway pulling out," Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim said last week. "Our patience is almost unlimited but those who are impatient are the civilians."

"The LTTE's demand that SLMM monitors from EU countries be replaced is deeply regrettable and will weaken the SLMM in a critical period," Solheim said.

The Tiger demand would force 37 out of the 57 monitors now in Sri Lanka to quit, leaving only those from Norway and Iceland and effectively hamstringing the SLMM.

Odd Naustdal, Solheim's information officer, said the meeting was kept low-key for now, with no news conference or press releases scheduled, "although this could change".

"The meeting is an internal working meeting to discuss the SLMM," he told AFP.