The latest upsurge in fighting also came ahead of a planned visit to the island Tuesday by key donor Japan's special peace envoy, who will be discussing what future there is for the country's tattered peace process.
Violence has been concentrated at front lines in the north that separate a de facto mini-state run by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) -- who have been fighting for a separate homeland for the island's minority ethnic Tamils since 1972 -- and government-held areas.
The Tiger rebels said they killed at least 30 government troops in a five-hour battle Sunday to capture several gun positions and military detachments, and released pictures of an armoured carrier and bases they seized.
The defence ministry in Colombo, however, said the military had beaten back a guerrilla offensive and killed at least 52 rebel fighters.
The contradictory claims -- a regular feature of Sri Lanka's long-running civil war -- could not be independently verified and government defence sources said casualty details were still emerging from remote outposts.
Government troops and Tamil Tiger fighters have been engaged in worsening fighting since a 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire collapsed last year. Thousands have died in the last 18 months.
Japan's special peace envoy, Yasushi Akashi, is scheduled to visit the island Tuesday in the latest attempt at bringing the two sides back into the peace process.
Akashi was planning to "discuss with the government and the parties concerned the current situation of the peace process and its future," the Japanese embassy said in a statement.
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse Monday meanwhile ordered an immediate inquiry into the weekend murders of two Sri Lankan Red Cross employees over the weekend, a state-run newspaper said.
"There was no involvement on the part of the police or security personnel into the alleged abduction and killing of the two volunteers," the Daily News also asserted.
Gunmen claiming to be police abducted and shot dead S. Shanmungaligam and K. Chandramohan, and their bullet-ridden bodies were discovered late Saturday in the central town of Ratnapura, hours after they were went missing from the main railway station in Colombo.
Both workers belonged to Sri Lanka's minority Tamil community.
The deaths marked the worst attack against aid staff here since the massacre of 17 people working for the French charity Action Against Hunger (ACF).
Only last week, key Sri Lankan aid donors announced the government had offered security guarantees for aid workers -- who have been accused by state media and public officials of being pro-rebel.
Following the guarantees, the aid groups from the US, UN and European Union among others agreed to return to work in northern and eastern areas of the country, the scene of almost daily fighting.
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