Sri Lanka says it is still fighting rebels

International officials have pressed the government to accept a temporary truce to allow tens of thousands of trapped civilians to escape the fighting. The government,which accuses the Tamil Tigers of holding the civilians as human shields,says any letup in the battle would allow the rebels to regroup just as they stand on the verge of defeat in their quarter-century separatist war.

Early Tuesday,Sri Lankan forces took over a line of earthen fortifications the rebels had constructed to protect the tiny strip of land they still control along the northeast coast,military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said. Troops recovered the bodies of seven rebel fighters,he said.

Sri Lankan forces also foiled a rebel attempt to send an explosives-laden truck barreling at them,Nanayakkara said. The truck exploded short of its target,wounding several soldiers,he said,without elaborating.

A rebel-linked Web site said on Tuesday that the government continued to use heavy weapons in the fight,despite its promise.

TamilNet said air force jets dropped nine bombs in the war zone after the announcement,troops launched artillery and mortar shells and the navy joined the fight in the evening,firing into the area.

Journalists and aid groups are barred from the area.

International concern has grown over the safety of the estimated 50,000 ethnic Tamil civilians still trapped in the war zone,especially in light of a recent U.N. report that nearly 6,500 noncombatants have already been killed in the recent offensive.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner were to arrive in Colombo on Wednesday to mediate an end to the conflict and press the government to agree to a cease-fire. The pair were among the highest level European officials to visit the island since the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami.

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was also to have made the trip,but he said on Tuesday he had been denied entry by the government. Bildt said no reason had been given for the decision,and government officials in Colombo declined to immediately comment on the report.

Bildt had been scheduled to visit the country this week with Miliband and Kouchner,who were granted permission to enter the country,Bildt said.

“This is remarkable,” he said. “You just don’t act this way.”

Bildt said Sweden would call back its ambassador from Colombo in response to the decision.

The Tamil Tigers,listed as a terrorist group by many Western nations,have been fighting since 1983 for an ethnic Tamil state in the north and east after decades of marginalization by governments dominated by the Sinhalese majority.

New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the UN Security Council to create an international commission of inquiry to look into abuses by both sides.