Sri Lankan authorities are verifying with police in Thailand reports about the arrest of top Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam leader Kumaran Padmanathan, who allegedly financed the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.

Defence officials said they were awaiting details from Bangkok about the arrest of Padmanathan, better known as KP, somewhere in Thailand on charges of gun-running.

Sri Lanka's Defence Ministry reproduced a Thai media report, which said the man had been arrested as part of the execution of an Interpol arrest warrant, but had no information on their own.

Local media in Colombo quoted the Thai branch of Interpol as saying that they had no information about any such arrest and they checked their records going back two years but found nothing on KP.