COLOMBO, March 16 (Reuters) - The Sri Lankan military shot dead a suspected Tamil Tiger rebel on Friday after he tried to blow himself up at a checkpoint in the restive northern Jaffna peninsula, an official said.

"A soldier shot and killed a suicide cadre who tried to embrace another soldier at a checkpoint in Jaffna. The body and the suicide jacket are there," said Lieutenant-Colonel Upali Rajapakse of the Media Centre for National Security in Colombo.

"We avoided a massacre, there were a lot of civilians and soldiers around," Rajapakse said.

Dozens have been killed in recent weeks as government and Tamil Tiger rebels ignored repeated calls from the international community to halt a new chapter in a two-decade civil war that has killed around 68,000 people since 1983.

Meanwhile, the military said the rebels were keeping up continuous artillery and mortar fire towards the government's defence line at Omanthai in the northern district of Vavuniya.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were not immediately available for comment.

The Tigers have warned of a bloodbath if the international community fails to convince the military to halt a declared plan to wipe them out. Analysts fear the conflict will deepen.

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