UN chief Ban Ki-moon has come face-to-face with the despair of Sri Lanka's war-hit civilians during a tour of a key refugee camp while also flying over the devastated conflict zone.

On a 24-hour visit to the battle-scarred island nation yesterday, Ban went on foot through the sprawling Menik Farm camp, 250 km north of Colombo, which is jammed with 200,000 civilians displaced by the fighting.