Sri Lanka will soon call for fresh bids for oil exploration in the waters of the Mannar Basin off the north-west coast, Central Bank governor Nivard Cabraal told an investment conference in Colombo.

Sri Lanka has already given out one block to Cairn India, a unit of Britain's Cairn Energy which plans to do more seismic surveys next year and dig test wells.

The conference is held to attract foreign investment to Sri Lanka after it ended a
30-year war against terrorism with the defeat by government forces of LTTE in May.

He also had said oil exploration was one of the sectors that have potential in the country as the government prepares a blueprint to revive the economy after decades of war.

The end of the war has opened up fresh opportunities for the country which investors had long shunned because of the violence despite the opening up of her economy as far back as 1977, Cabraal had further stated