Troops surround Tiger rebels

Colombo: Sri Lankan forces Friday battled to take complete control of the country's coastline and surround the reeling Tamil Tigers in a final push to destroy the rebel group and end the country's civil war, the military said.

As the fighting raged, hundreds of desperate war refugees escaped the war zone and a top UN official headed here on an urgent mission to safeguard the tens of thousands of civilians still trapped amid the heavy shelling.

Britain, meanwhile, said it supports an early investigation into whether war crimes have been committed in Sri Lanka.

"We would support an early investigation into all incidents that may have resulted in civilian casualties...to determine whether war crimes have been committed," junior foreign minister Bill Rammell said.

"The UN's estimate, if it is accurate, of over 6,500 civilian deaths since January is truly shocking and appalling," he added, in a parliamentary debate on the military standoff on the island nation.

The Sri Lankan government has forced the rebels out of the shadow state they once controlled in the north and cornered them in a four-square-kilometre strip of northeastern coastline.

Two army units were pushing ahead with a pincer movement, fighting their way down the coast from the north and up from the south in an effort to link up, severing the rebels' last remaining sea outlet and completely encircling them, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.

Meanwhile, at least a thousand more civilians managed to flee rebel-held territory yesterday, joining more than 3,700 who waded across a lagoon to escape the day before, he said.

The rebels on Thursday fired on those leaving, killing four and wounding 14 others, he said. About 200,000 civilians have escaped the war zone in recent months and are being held in overwhelmed displacement camps.

The rebels have denied accusations they were holding the civilians as human shields and shooting at those trying to flee.

Reports of the fighting are difficult to verify because the government has barred journalists and most aid workers from the conflict zone.

International concern has grown for tens of thousands of civilians under threat from the heavy artillery bombardments shaking the war zone.