Thousands of civilians fled Sri Lanka's eastern battle zone on foot today as shells fell nearby.
Tamil Tiger rebels and the army fought each other with artillery and mortar fire, and small pockets of rebels continued firefights with troops in the eastern Muslim town of Mutur, where aid workers say around 22,000 people have been trapped by the fighting.
Tamil Tigers attacked also army camps.At least 20 civilians, 12 Tigers and one soldier were killed yesterday.
Norway's peace envoy flew in to try to halt a slide back to civil war.
The military says it has killed more than 70 rebels in the past week and the Tigers say they have the bodies of 40 troops ready to hand over. But each side dismisses the other's claims.
The fighting is the most intense and prolonged since a 2002 truce, and diplomats and some military personnel say the civil war that began in 1983 appears to have resumed in all but name.
Well over 800 people have been killed so far this year in escalating attacks and military clashes between the army and the Tigers, who are furious at President Mahinda Rajapakse's outright rejection of their demand for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils in the north and east.
Norwegian special peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer flew to the island today to discuss how to preserve a Nordic truce monitoring mission after Denmark, Finland and Sweden pulled their staff out in the face of a rebel ultimatum.
The Tigers gave monitors from European Union nations a September 1st deadline to quit the island after the bloc listed them as a terrorist organisation alongside the likes of al-Qaeda, reducing the 54-member mission to just 20 people.