Colombo, Apr 6: A senior Tamil-speaking minister and 11 others were killed and over 90 injured in a powerful suicide bombing at a ceremony marking the start of a marathon race as part of Sri Lanka's traditional New Year celebrations near here, officials said.

The incident blamed by the Government on the Tamil Tigers occurred at the western district of Grampaha, about 25 kms from the capital Colombo, where Minister of Highways and Road Development, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, was attending a function to mark the Sinhala and Tamil New Year.

Fernandopulle, a vocal critic of Tamil Tigers, was about to wave a flag to start a merathon race when the bomb went off at the Kanthi playground in Weliveriya town of the district.

The minister, regarded as a potential prime minister-in waiting, died of injuries sustained in the blast at a hospital, officials said.

They said 11 others, including former Olympic marathoner K A Karunaratne and national athletic coach Lakshman de Alwis, were also killed in the suicide blast.

Over 90 people, including Grampaha police Senior Superintendent Hector Darmasiri, were seriously injured in the blast and rushed to a local hospital, the Defence Ministry said while blaming the Tamil Tiger rebels for the blast.

Fernandopulle, who was a Sri Lankan delegation member in the failed peace talks with the Tamil Tigers, has become the second minister to have been assassinated this year.

D M Dassanayake, Minister for Nation Building, was killed in a bomb blast in the same district on January 8, days after the government pulled out of a ceasefire with the Tamil Tigers.