COLOMBO, September 07 (AFP) - Sri Lanka asked local and international aid workers to vacate Tamil Tiger-held territory ahead of a major military push to dismantle the rebels` mini state, a minister said Monday. The few aid agencies, including UN organisations, still operating inside rebel-held Wanni in northern Sri Lanka were told they should quit the area immediately, disaster management minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said. "We have told them that we are not in a position to guarantee their safety given the present situation," Samarasinghe said. "We asked to leave the Wanni immediately with all their resources. They wanted a week or two to comply." He said defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse explained to representatives of aid agencies Monday that Tiger rebels could attack humanitarian workers to shift the blame onto government forces. The minister said they were concerned that troops may be accused of killing aid workers in a repeat of the August 2006 massacre of 17 local employees of the French aid agency Action Against Hunger in the east of the island. "UN and other aid agencies being in the Wanni now is unfavourable to us at this time," the minister said. "We have told them that we can still take care of the internally displaced people with our existing network of officials .