REUTEURS UPDATE on this morning's blast

11:22 01Dec2006 RTRS-UPDATE 1-Sri Lanka President's brother hurt in blast-witness
(Updates with fresh quotes, details throughout)

COLOMBO, Dec 1 (Reuters) - A bomb blast in the Sri Lankan capital on Friday slightly injured President Mahinda Rajapakse's brother, who is also the country's defence secretary, in what witnesses said appeared to be a rebel suicide bombing.

Gothabaya Rajapakse, who was admitted to hospital, has taken a hard line against Tamil Tiger rebels since he was appointed a year ago. His driver said he was only slightly injured.
"This is the Secretary of Defence's vehicle. He was taken away with slight injuries," the driver said, standing next to the ash-coloured BMW with shattered windows. He refused to give his name.

The attack comes just days after the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they were resuming their independence struggle in what analysts said opened a new chapter in the island's two-decade civil war.

A Reuters witness saw a severed head in the back of a pickup truck at the scene of the blast and the wreckage of a three wheeler taxi -- vehicles which have been used in previous bomb attacks blamed on the rebels.

A severed head found at the roadside after blasts is also often the sign of a suicide bombing.
Neither the police nor the military had any immediate comment on the attack, which took place outside an upscale Indian restaurant in downtown Colombo, a few hundred metres from the Prime Minister's offices.

Sri Lanka's two-decade civil has killed more than 67,000 civilians, troops and rebel fighters since 1983, around 3,000 of those this year alone.

((Reporting by Ranga Sirilal, writing by Simon Gardner, editing by David; Colombo newsroom))