Sri Lanka's military battled overnight to capture a rebel-held town at the mouth of a strategic northeastern harbour as the Tamil Tigers warned the offensive could kill what is left of a truce.
Officials also said President Mahinda Rajapakse and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had flown to London overnight to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair, likely tomorrow, but had no details.
The army said 13 soldiers have been killed in action and 79 wounded in fierce artillery and mortar fire since the new eastern offensive towards the northeastern town of Sampur began on Monday.
Both sides claim to have killed dozens of opponents.
Sampur sits on the southern lip of Trincomalee harbour, 230 kilometres northeast of the capital Colombo, and puts the Tigers in range of a naval base and maritime supply route to the island's besieged army-held Jaffna peninsula in the far north.
The army launched its heaviest artillery barrage for days towards rebel territory south of Jaffna early today.
Violence also flared further south overnight when Tiger rebels attacked an army camp in the eastern district of Batticaloa with mortar fire, injuring three soldiers, while an abducted Tamil journalist feared murdered was released blindfolded in the capital.
Both the Tigers and the government say they stick by the terms of the truce, and each accuse the other of trying to force a return to a full-blown civil war that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983.
But truce monitors say while the ceasefire still exists on paper, it is effectively dead on the ground as the worst fighting since stretches into a fifth week.
Hundreds of troops, rebels and civilians have been killed in the past month, and more than 200,000 civilians have been displaced from their homes and are now living in tent cities, churches and mosques.