Colombo, Apr. 15 : Sri Lankan troops have resumed their offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) in the northeast, ending a 48-hour ceasefire early Wednesday.

News agency reports quoted a military spokesman as saying that both sides have begun exchanging rocket and gunfire after midnight.

The Tamil Tiger rebels have claimed that the ceasefire called by the Sri Lankan Government was nothing but an attempt to deceive the international community.

After losing large swathes of territory they once controlled, the remaining guerrillas are now boxed into a narrow strip of jungle in the northeast where they are vastly outnumbered.

The government rejected a rebel demand for a permanent truce.

Sri Lanka''s President Mahinda Rajapakse, who called the ceasefire only to coincide with the traditional New Year on Monday and Tuesday, said his troops were on the verge of total victory.

The Tigers have been accused of holding tens of thousands of civilians in the shrinking territory still under their control as a human shield. (ANI)