Sri Lankan troops have captured the last patch of coastline held by the Tamil Tigers, leaving the rebels completely surrounded and cut off from any sea escape, according to the military.

sri lanka war against LTTE tamil tigers The island's government has vowed to press on to secure the final defeat of the Tigers despite international calls for a ceasefire to save the lives of thousands of trapped civilians.

In the latest appeal to Sri Lankan authorities, European Union foreign ministers urged that "the fighting must stop now".

sri lanka war against LTTE tamil tigers "The EU is appalled by continuing reports of high numbers of civilian casualties, including children, following recent intense fighting," said a draft statement from Brussels.

Two divisions of government soldiers that have been advancing along the coastline from the southern and northern ends of the remaining rebel territory linked up this morning, a military official said.

"The Tigers still have a few square kilometres (miles) of land, but not the use of the beach front," he said.

Defeat of Tigers unlikely to bring peace

President Mahinda Rajapakse has vowed to take the last territory from the Tigers by tomorrow, ending the separatists' decades-long armed campaign for an ethnic Tamil homeland.

sri lanka war against LTTE tamil tigers The Tigers controlled nearly a third of the island only two years ago, operating an effectively autonomous Tamil state.

Their defeat is unlikely to bring peace to Sri Lanka, instead seeing the Tamil fighters return to the guerrilla hit-and-run tactics that they have used to devastating effect in the past.

Resentment of the Tamils' privileged status under British colonial rulers surfaced when the Sinhalese majority took power after independence in 1948.

With Sinhalese nationalism on the rise, Tamil youngsters took up arms and a full scale war erupted in the 1980s.

As the fighting reaches its apparent endgame, thousands of civilians continued to pour out of the rebel zone where they had been held by the Tigers in dire conditions.

Website: Fighting rages in war zone

"They are slowly giving up. They are blowing up whatever arms and ammunition they have," military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said of the remnants of the once-powerful Tamil Tiger army.

There was no immediate word from the Tigers, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet website said the war zone was clouded in smoke as fighting raged.

sri lanka war against LTTE tamil tigers Tamil Tiger founder and leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is thought to be still with his troops as they make a last stand.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, was heading to the island in a fresh effort to stop the carnage, and was expected to reach Colombo late today.

The UN's human rights office has said an independent probe into possible war crimes in Sri Lanka was vital.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, the only neutral organisation working in the conflict area, said its staff were "witnessing an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe".

- AFP