Members of Canada's Tamil community say they are being aggressively pursued and extorted by Tamil Tiger agents raising money for attacks in their homeland, according to a new report.

Human Rights Watch says intimidating bagmen are pressuring Canada's Tamil population of about 250,000 to lend money, re-mortgage their homes or even skip meals to help fund the fight for a separate Sri Lankan state.

One man told OMNI Television he was asked to get a second mortgage on his house.

He said he knows some families have given $2,000, while others have given $5,000.

The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some Tamils found they couldn't refuse the request "because their relatives still live in Sri Lanka."

Those who can't pay a requested sum are being warned they will be "taught a lesson," says the 45-page report released Wednesday.

"One individual who was unemployed when approached by the Tigers was told that he should cut one meal per day to enable him to give to the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam)."

For more than two decades the LTTE has been fighting a war of independence on behalf of Tamils against the Sinhalese-dominated government of Sri Lanka.

Many Tamils in Canada give money to the group willingly, said Jo Becker, the report's author, but she said those who are threatened are afraid to go to police.

Officials for the Tamil community in Toronto say they are not aware of such extortion tactics.

Vijay Sappani, of the Canadian Tamil Congress, says such reports are a slur against his people and create a skewed image.

"In the past we have seen such reports from Jo Becker and we have seen that these are false accusations," he told CTV Newsnet Wednesday.

"From a scientific viewpoint, it has no validity. All of the accusations she's made have no base to it."

Sappani said the Canadian Tamil population has only reported being visited, not extorted, and those visits came from individuals in groups not part of the LTTE.

Sappani said the scenario described in the report is not reality.

"There is no proof of their claims, and when there is no proof, it makes it difficult for anybody to investigate it," he said.

The former Liberal government barred Tamil Tigers from raising cash in Canada as part of anti-terrorism efforts after Sept. 11, but did not take the step of outlawing simple membership in the organization.

The Liberals also condemned terrorist activity by the Tigers, including suspected recruitment of child soldiers.

On a visit to Sri Lanka last year, shortly after the tsunami, former Prime Minister Paul Martin met with Tamil nationalist politicians.

He rejected calls for more stringent domestic action against the Tigers. Martin said Canada had been asked not to aggravate an already delicate situation.

Conservatives repeatedly called for a membership ban while in opposition but have so far taken no action.

"We are waiting for some more assessments. Some of our investigative and intelligence information is still yet to come, and we should be able to make a decision pretty soon on this," Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day told CTV News.

Becker says she spent five months interviewing victims, police, journalists and activists mostly in Toronto and London, England, where more than half of about 700,000 displaced Tamils now live.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based independent non-government group, is calling on police and politicians to create a task force to investigate LTTE fundraising activities. The group also says hotlines for victims are needed.

With files from The Canadian Press and a report from CTV's Denelle Balfour