Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tyronne Fernando has expressed his shock and sorrow over the deaths of the United Nations officials in a bomb blast in UN office in Iraq, the official Daily News said on Thursday.

"It was with great shock and sorrow that I learnt of the news of the attack on the UN Office in Iraq killing several UN officials and causing injuries to many others, the death of Sergio Vieira de Mello is a tragic loss for the UN," Fernando said in a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Sri Lanka condemns this cowardly act in the strongest possible terms and expresses its deepest condolences on the loss of precious human lives, he said.

Violence of this nature could but should not hinder the humanitarian work carried out by the UN and other international organizations in Iraq, he added.

At least 20 people, including the top UN envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, were killed on Tuesday when a truck bomb wrecked the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
 
(Xinhua News Agency August 21, 2003)