Tiger-held town to fall soon

Vakarai, the scene of intense artillery battles with the Tigers since November, is the last major rebel-held town on the east coast after the military drove them out of territory near the strategic port of Trincomalee further north.

"It's a matter of time now. It could be days, or weeks, but we will get there," Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe, the top military spokesman, told Reuters in a interview.

"The only thing holding us back is the fear of civilian casualties; they are using them as human shields," he said.

Analysts said the offensive on Vakarai was a key step in the government's plan to clear the Tigers from the east. Once the rebels are pushed out, the government plans to hold local elections that a faction of renegade rebels opposed to the Tigers and aligned to the military are expected to win.

"Once it's cleared, there won't be any big bases left in the area. There will be sporadic incidents, but not like this," Samarasinghe said.

But the rebels, who want to create a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east, have warned of a full-scale war if the military pressed its offensive.

The Tigers accuse the military of war-mongering, and Nordic truce monitors say the plan violates the terms of a now tattered 2002 ceasefire.

But Samarasinghe said the Tigers had been carrying out attacks on the army from near urban centres, provoking a retaliation.