Colombo - A UN envoy Thursday visited Tamil refugees living in government-controlled camps in northern Sri Lanka, four months after government troops defeated the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, in Sri Lanka for a three-day visit for talks with the government on the post-war situation, visited the camps on the northern Jaffna peninsula to get a better look at the situation, officials said.

The visit came as opposition parties mounted a campaign to release the inmates from the camps, enabling them to resettle in their villages. Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe Wednesday urged the government to release all camp inmates.

Pascoe is to meet with Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama and President Mahinda Rajapaksa. He is expected to press the goverment to speed up the release of displaced Tamils from the camps.

The UN office in Colombo said the critical issues including the resettlement of internally displaced persons, political reconciliation and the establishment of "a mechanism of accountability for alleged human rights violations in the context of the conflict" were on the agenda.

In May, the government defeated the LTTE, ending almost three decades of civil strife.

More than 250,000 Tamils live in camps which have been placed under heavy security and limited access to outsiders.

However, the government says that the security forces are still in the process of removing the mines left behind in the last phase of the conflict.

The military claims they have found more than 30,000 antipersonnel mines since May.

But the political opposition argues people could be resettled in areas which have already been identified as cleared or allow them to live with relatives.

Aid groups also fear the monsoon rains will adversely affect refugees in their shelters.(dpa)