Military officials and the rebels said sporadic mortar bomb attacks and artillery fire continued throughout Sunday along the Trincomalee and Batticaloa district borders.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said the military launched a fresh offensive against them at Vakarai and Sunday's artillery attacks killed at least 10 civilians.

"Ten civilians have been killed so far and fifteen more have been injured," the Tigers said in a statement referring to Sunday's attacks. It said another 15 civilians were killed and more than 40 were injured on Saturday.

However, the defence ministry said it was the guerrillas who initiated the offensive and said the military had, however, counter attacked and inflicted heavy losses on the guerrillas.

"Two soldiers were reported killed and 20 were injured," the ministry said in a statement referring to Sunday's fighting.

The guerrillas said they killed 30 government soldiers in Saturday's artillery duels along the district borders of Trincomalee and Batticaloa where civilians are on the run.

"In the battle that lasted for several hours, 30 Sri Lanka army soldiers, including two senior officers, were killed. Five bodies of soldiers have been captured by the LTTE," the Tigers said in a statement.

The defence ministry rejected Tiger claims and said only two soldiers were killed and 37 injured on Saturday, while claiming that over 40 Tigers were killed and another 40 wounded on the same day.

The ministry said the number of the displaced in the Trincomalee district rose Sunday to 2,232 and that they were found temporary accommodation in schools, temples and public building in the neighbourhood.

Military officials in Trincomalee, 260km northeast of here said that four soldiers were missing since Saturday.

Both sides blamed each other for the plight of civilians trapped in rebel-held areas as well as territory controlled by the military.

Hundreds of civilians were also unable to leave because of the sporadic artillery attacks on the main roads, a military official in the area said by telephone.

The renewed attacks came after peacebroker Norway failed on Friday to secure an agreement to end a blockade on the Jaffna peninsula, where nearly half a million people are trapped by fighting.

The LTTE said they told Oslo's envoy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, to persuade the government to provide unconditional access to the embattled north.

The government had asked Hanssen-Bauer to secure a deal with the Tigers to allow a convoy of some 400 trucks to travel through rebel-held territory, but the Tigers rejected a one-off convoy.

Instead, the LTTE political wing leader SP Thamilselvan told Hanssen-Bauer the government must open a disputed highway to Jaffna, as well as another highway to the island's east.

The Tamil Tigers have been campaigning for independence for the island's minority 2.5-million Tamil community in the majority Sinhalese nation of 19.5 million people.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Sri Lanka in the past year. The bitter ethnic conflict that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.