COLOMBO, June 4, 2007 (AFP) - Sri Lankan government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels were engaged in sporadic clashes in the north of the island Monday, the day after fierce battles left scores dead, official sources said.

The latest upsurge in serious fighting also came ahead of a planned visit to the island Tuesday by key donor Japan's special peace envoy for talks on the future of a 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) and government-held areas.

The Tiger rebels said they killed at least 30 government troops in Sunday's five-hour battle to capture several gun positions and military detachments, and released pictures of an armoured carrier and bases they captured.

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.

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 "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.

The Tamil Tigers have been fighting for a separate homeland for the island's minority ethnic Tamils since 1972. At least 60,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

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