Hong Kong's flag carrier Cathay Pacific and Dubai-based Emirates said they had suspended all flights to the island in the wake of Sunday's pre-dawn air strike by the rebels.

The guerrillas used two light aircraft to bomb two fuel depots near Colombo.

Singapore Airlines said it would only fly into Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) which shares a runway with the Sri Lankan air force during daylight hours.

"As a security precaution, with regard to the extenuating circumstances in Colombo, we have rescheduled our flight departure and arrival times," a Singapore Airlines official told AFP.

"It will be a daytime flight instead of a night flight."

Emirates, which initially decided to operate only daytime services, later decided to stop flying to Colombo altogether.

"Following a review of the situation in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, Emirates' flights to the city remain suspended until further notice," the airline said in a statement.

The airline industry was seeking more clarification from Sri Lankan authorities, with several other airlines also reviewing their operations although there were no formal statements from them.

"Safety is a top priority at Cathay Pacific and a careful assessment of the situation will be made before services are resumed," Cathay said in statement issued in Hong Kong.

It is the second time in recent weeks that Cathay Pacific has suspended flights to Sri Lanka.

Cathay pulled services for a week late last month after Tamil Tiger rebels launched their first air raid.

The airlines' decisions came despite assurances from Sri Lankan authorities that they were capable of dealing with the air threat from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The country's Media Minister, Anura Priyadharshana Yapa, said in a statement that the "government is fully capable of meeting any challenges from the LTTE terrorist outfit."

He also promised "all effective steps will be taken to ensure the safety of the nation and its people."

Passengers flying out of Colombo to South Asia this week were scrambling for seats, travel agents said, adding that those flying to Singapore were now being offered flights routed through southern India and the Maldives.

Flights to the airport, located just outside the capital, were diverted after rebel aircraft were spotted in its air space early Sunday.

Flights were disrupted by air defence systems, officials said, adding that one Indian jet was turned back and several departing flights were delayed.

During two of the three bombing raids by the Tamil Tigers, rebel planes crossed one of the main international flight paths to the airport.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan troops have killed 12 people in clashes after a Tamil Tiger air strike on the capital, government officials said yesterday.

Six people, including five rebels, died when troops stormed a Hindu temple on a small island off the northern Jaffna peninsula on Sunday.

"In the confrontation, five LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) cadres who were inside the (temple) were killed," the defence ministry said in a statement, adding the custodian of the Amman temple "was also killed in the crossfire."

In a separate incident on Sunday, government troops killed six Tiger rebels, three of them women, in the northeastern Weli Oya region.

There was no immediate word from the LTTE about the incidents.

The clashes came after two Tamil Tiger light aircraft bombed fuel depots around Sri Lanka's capital early Sunday, briefly plunging Colombo into darkness and sending cricket fans watching the World Cup final running for cover.

In Sunday's attack, a fuel storage tank owned jointly by the government and the Indian Oil Company was destroyed while two Shell Gas Lanka buildings, the local unit of the Anglo-Dutch giant, also suffered fire damage, officials said.

The Tigers carried out their first-ever air strike last month and followed it last week with an attack on the Palaly military complex in the north of the country.

The Tigers, who have been fighting for an independent Tamil state for the past 35 years, are believed to be operating five Czech-built Zlin-143 aircraft smuggled onto the island in pieces and re-assembled.