Sri Lankan troops killed 30 rebels in a fierce jungle battle in the restive east and three insurgents killed themselves with cyanide capsules, the military said, as Japan's peace envoy voiced concern at rights abuses.
The military said one soldier had been killed and 17 injured in the battle in an area of eastern jungle called Thoppigala, where the two sides have fought artillery and mortar bomb duels for weeks amid a new chapter in a two-decade civil war.
The Tigers said they had no immediate details of any casualties from the latest fighting.
"We estimate troops killed 30 Tigers, plus three Tigers committed suicide in front of our troops," a spokesman for the Media Centre for National Security said, asking not to be named in line with policy. He said troops had overrun four Tiger bases.
"I think this might be the last battle in Thoppigala," he added, referring to a military campaign to stamp the rebels out in the east, where the insurgents were evicted from a former stronghold in January.
Japanese peace envoy Yasushi Akashi said on Saturday he was worried by human rights violations blamed on both the Sri Lankan state and the Tamil Tigers, as police returned hundreds of deported Tamils to the capital in a U-turn.
However, unlike Britain and the United States which have both suspended some aid citing rights abuse concerns, Akashi said Japan -- Sri Lanka's chief financial donor -- would continue with its multi-million-dollar aid programmes.
During his five-day stay in Sri Lanka police banished hundreds of Tamils to the war-torn north citing security concerns, nine mutilated corpses were found north of Colombo and the Tigers and military fought deadly battles, but the Japanese envoy remained optimistic.