Sri Lankan officials yesterday sought more time to exhume a suspected mass grave in a former war zone after failing to secure the services of forensic experts.

The exhumation of human remains of more than 100 Muslims slaughtered and allegedly buried by the LTTE in a mass grave at Kurukkalmadam beach in Sri Lanka's Batticaloa district has reportedly begun.

The claims of a mass grave in the Eastern Province follow the discovery of several similar rumors of sites elsewhere in the island's war zone as well as in the Central Province.

Digging was scheduled to begin yesterday but a local magistrate allowed authorities to postpone it for a second time, a local police official said.

"There were difficulties in getting forensic experts from Colombo," said an official in Kalavanchikudy,

He also said that the exhumation will be rescheduled to November 24.

He said it was the second time the excavation, initially scheduled to start on July 1, had been delayed for that reason.

At least 168 Muslims were taken captive from their homes and killed at the Kurukkalmadam beach by a group of LTTE cadres from Kalmunai on July 12, 1990.

The exhumation was ordered after 66 relatives of the killed Muslims claimed that the remains of the victims were buried on the Kurukkalmadam beach and requested the court to take action to provide them with their skeletal remains to give them a proper burial.