COLOMBO - SRI Lanka's ruling coalition won control of two provincial assemblies on Sunday in elections seen as a public endorsement of the government's efforts to defeat the separatist Tamil Tigers.

The ruling United People's Freedom Alliance coalition won the majority of seats in both the Central and North Western provincial councils, according to results released by the Department of Elections.

Recent military victories against ethnic Tamil rebels have boosted the popularity of President Mahinda Rajapakse's coalition government among the ethnic majority Sinhalese.

Mr Rajapakse's main rival, the United National Party, has favored negotiations with the Tamil Tigers but has been largely sidelined amid the government's military successes.

In recent months the military has captured nearly all the separatists' strongholds and cornered them in a small sliver of land near the northeastern coast.

The victories have provided the government with its best chance of militarily crushing the rebels and ending their 25-year campaign for an independent homeland for minority Tamils, who have suffered marginalisation by successive governments controlled by Sinhalese.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the violence. -- AP