The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Colombo

Tamil Tiger rebels fought an intense battle with government forces advancing into their territory in northern Sri Lanka and killed at least 43 soldiers, a pro-rebel website reported Monday.

Members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) resisted a military push at Nallur in the northern mainland on Sunday, the Tamilnet.com website said.

They said the Tigers recovered the bodies of eight soldiers, but did not give their own casualties.

However, the guerrillas for the first time admitted that security forces had taken the strategically important town of Pooneryn and that heavy fighting was taking place on the outskirts of their political capital Kilinochchi. There was no immediate comment from Sri Lankan military authorities on casualties from the latest fighting, but the defence ministry on Sunday said that troops were marching on Kilinochchi from three directions.

Sri Lanka's government has vowed to take the Tiger political capital and dismantle the LTTE's mini-state.

Sri Lankan troops have been engaged in a massive offensive against the Tigers since the government pulled out of a Norwegian-brokered truce at the start of the year.

Authorities in Sri Lanka have restricted access to the embattled areas for journalists as well as most aid workers, meaning that claims by either side in the decades-old conflict are normally impossible to independently verify.

Tens of thousands of people have died in the LTTE's campaign for a separate homeland for the island's minority Tamils.