COLOMBO - SRI Lankan troops on Sunday fought their way into Mullaittivu, the last town held by Tamil Tiger rebels who are holed up in the northeast of the island, a government spokesman said.

The advance was the latest in a series of successes for the government in a massive military assault aimed at ending the longest-running ethnic war in Asia.

Troops in small groups used boats to enter the western side of Mullaittivu, the only remaining urban stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The Tigers blew up a dam and flooded surrounding areas on Saturday in a bid to slow down the military's progress towards Mullaittivu town, but troops used the boats to reach the town's outskirts, the official said.

'Troops of the 59th division entered Mullaittivu town a short while ago and we hope they will consolidate their hold across the town in a few hours,' government spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella confirmed.

After retaking the rebels' main city of Kilinochchi earlier this month, the army vowed to capture rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as troops stormed into territory long under the complete control of the guerrillas.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse said in a New Year's address that 2009 would be the year of 'heroic victory' over the Tigers, who have been waging war since 1972 to establish an independent homeland for ethnic Tamils.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since the conflict began but Rajapakse's government pulled out of an on-again, off-again ceasefire last year and launched a fresh campaign to crush the Tigers once and for all.

'For the last time, I am telling the LTTE to lay down arms and surrender,' he said in an address to the nation after Kilinochchi was captured.

Prabhakaran said in his own annual address in November that the rebels, among the first proponents of suicide bombings and considered one of the world's most fearless and effective guerrilla groups, would fight on.

'No sane voice is being raised either to abandon war or to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict,' he said.

Human rights groups have criticised the Tigers for forcing children to fight as soldiers, and the LTTE has been labelled a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and neighbouring India.

Still, the rebels were able to get the international community to back them in a ceasefire deal that always struggled to take hold and finally collapsed last year, when the government pulled out. -- AFP