Sri Lanka’s president has declared that the island's separatist Tamil Tiger rebels have been ‘defeated militarily’.
A military official said two troop divisions had linked up to grab the last piece of coastline held by the Tigers.
Meanwhile, in the latest appeal to Sri Lankan authorities, France and Britain joined forces to urge Colombo to avoid using heavy artillery in its endgame push against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
In a letter addressed to Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse, foreign ministers Bernard Kouchner and David Miliband warned that ‘there have been a number of reports that your security forces have not lived up to these commitments’.
Sri Lanka announced on 27 April that it was halting the use of heavy weapons and air strikes to spare civilian lives in its battle against the Tamil Tigers, but said it was not calling a truce.
A draft statement drawn up ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers on Monday called for the fighting to ‘stop now’.
Meanwhile, the UN's human rights office said an independent probe into possible war crimes in Sri Lanka's combat zone was vital as officials said some 50,000 civilians were still trapped by the fighting.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been fighting for an independent homeland on the ethnic Sinhalese-majority island since the 1970's.
