TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka : A heavy security blanket was thrown over eastern Sri Lanka ahead of Saturday's local polls, seen as a key test for the hawkish government as it escalates the war against Tamil rebels.

President Mahinda Rajapakse is hoping the east's first provincial council elections in 20 years will deliver a show of public support, despite concerns about the human and economic costs of the latest round of fighting.

The polls will be the largest to be held in the coastal regions of Ampara, Batticaloa and Trincomalee since the government dismantled large Tamil guerrilla strongholds in the area after heavy fighting last year.

Since then, Colombo says it has been trying to win the "hearts and minds" of the east's "liberated" Tamils -- a strategy it wants to take to the rebel-held north.

Although the eastern province is described as being under full government control, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cells still operate.

The government pulled out of a tattered truce with the LTTE in January. It has poured a record 1.5 billion dollars into the war effort this year, hitting people's pockets at a time of high inflation and rising food prices.

"The political sensitivity is very high. Normally we would have two police per polling station, but now we are using five," said Bandara Mapa, assistant election commissioner in the strategic northeastern port of Trincomalee, home to one of the world's largest natural harbours.

Each polling station will be in the middle of a 500 metre (yard) buffer zone guarded by members of the island's army, navy and air force.

Nearly one million people are eligible to elect 35 officials to the eastern provincial council.

The president's ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) has allied itself with the TMVP, a controversial militia comprised of LTTE defectors that won municipal elections further south in Batticaloa in March.

The main opposition UNP, which has teamed up with the biggest Muslim party, the SLMC, say the defectors have instilled a climate of fear in the multi-ethnic east.

The first provincial council elections were held in the east in 1988 to address Tamil demands for greater autonomy. The resulting council functioned for a year before it was dissolved by the central government.

- AFP/ms