Sri Lankan forces captured the insurgents' biggest sea base Thursday cutting off their main supply point in the latest in a string of military victories that has squeezed the Tamil Tigers into a 30-square-mile (85-square-kilometer) sliver of coastal land.

Even before the base was taken, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told Parliament that the ``last moment'' of the rebels' 25-year-old fight for a separate Tamil homeland was near.

More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict, and hundreds of civilians are reported to have been killed in the most recent round of fighting.

``Our forces have now surrounded the last stronghold of the terrorists. Our troops are challenging the Tigers waiting in front of their den,'' Wickremanayake told Parliament.

``The last moment of Tigers will be painful as well as decisive,'' he said.

The statement effectively rejected a call by the U.S., Britain and Canada for both sides to cease fire to allow civilians and the wounded to leave the area.

Military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said 1,282 civilians crossed over from the rebel area to government land on Wednesday and Thursday. But the United Nations and other aid agencies have said some 250,000 civilians are trapped in the war zone.

In another victory, troops overran the insurgents' sea base in Chalai, Nanayakkara, the military spokesman, told The Associated Press.

Nanayakkara said the rebels still retain some capability to launch naval suicide missions from small bases along the coast. But for now, the rebels are fighting a last-gasp battle for survival, bearing the brunt of a daily barrage of artillery.

The seizure cuts off their main supply point as Chalai was used to receive arms and fuel from other countries through a widespread smuggling network.

On Wednesday, more than 300 patients took refuge in a makeshift hospital after fleeing the war zone's last medical facility in Puthukkudiyiruppu, which was struck by artillery shells for days.

Accompanied by 18 staff members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, they made their way to a community center in Puttumatalan, an area that lacks clean drinking water, the Red Cross said in a statement.

``We have grave concerns for the well-being and safety of those who fled,'' said Paul Castella, head of the ICRC's Colombo delegation.

The government bars journalists from traveling to the area, making it impossible to obtain firsthand information. However, photographs and video of the wounded and dead, given to The Associated Press by independent observers, substantiate the reports coming out of the area.

The government says the army does not fire at civilian populations and is not responsible for any civilian casualties. However, it accuses the Tamil Tigers of using civilians as human shields, a charge the insurgents deny.

Wickremanayake said the Tamil Tigers are now looking for ways to escape by mingling with the civilians, adding that troops are now searching the jungles for the Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran.

Associated Press writers Vijay Joshi and Krishan Francis in Colombo contributed to this report.Discuss this story Published: Thu Feb 5 09:42:37 EST 2009

Security forces entered the Chalai area, 395 kilometres north-east of the capital, amidst resistance from the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who are putting up a final effort to prevent troops from entering the last areas under their control.

The main base of the sea unit of the LTTE was located in Chalai, but there was no immediate confirmation from the military whether they had overrun the base during the fighting.

The military claimed that at least three senior rebels were killed in the fighting.

As the fighting intensified civilians also have been moving towards the remaining coastal areas controlled by the LTTE, but the areas were further south of Chalai which troops entered.

On Thursday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) helped to relocate a hospital which had been coming under regular shell attacks.

The hospital located at Pudukudirippu, 385 kilometres north-east of the capital, had been under periodic shell attacks until Wednesday when it was relocated further north-east.

``All patients and equipment are now located in an area known as Puthumalan and all civilians in the former area too are coming there. One of the problems in this area is that there is not enough water in this area,'' ICRC official Sarasi Wijeratne said.

Meanwhile, a medical doctor based in another makeshift hospital, speaking from the north by telephone, said that they were located some two kilometers from the front line and could hear the sounds of regular firing between the security forces and the rebels.

In separate development, air force fighter jets bombed some of the rebel positions close to Pudukudirippu town on Thursday.

A military spokesman said that one of them was a communication centre and the other was a command centre of the LTTE.

Some 250,000 civilians are said to be trapped in the areas of fighting, according to the UN and the ICRC, but government estimates that the figure to be around 150,000.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday said he was confident that the rebels could be decisively defeated in the ``next few days.'' dpa ad jh Published: Thu Feb 5 07:41:28 EST 2009

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said he would only accept the complete surrender of the Tigers who are facing imminent defeat in their decades-long fight for an independent ethnic Tamil homeland.

Concern for civilians has mounted as troops advance towards the small jungle area where the remaining rebel forces are alleged by the government to be holding thousands of non-combatants as "human shields".

The United Nations reported at least 52 people were killed in a single shelling on Tuesday evening -- though it did not say who was responsible -- and said cluster bombs had been used in the attack.

The government denied it had cluster bombs, which release many smaller explosives over a wide area when they explode, but said the Tigers were known to have them.

There was no immediate reaction from the Tigers, who have been asked by international backers of Sri Lanka to consider terms of surrender and avoid further bloodshed. More...Discuss this story Published: Thu Feb 5 02:19:28 EST 2009