COLOMBO, Feb 22, 2007 (AFP) - Hundreds of villagers in northern Sri Lanka have fled their homes fearing a fresh military offensive against rebel-held territory, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said Thursday.

The rebel LTTE said hundreds of men, women and children from half a dozen villages along the de facto border line between the two sides were on the move and seeking refuge deeper inside rebel territory.

"About a thousand people have already become refugees," LTTE spokeswoman N. Selvy said by telephone from the rebels' political headquarters in Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres (206 miles) north of the capital, Colombo.

"People are afraid after recent Claymore (mine) attacks carried out by the Sri Lankan military," she said, adding the Tamil residents feared security forces could launch a fresh attack along rebel defence lines.

On Wednesday, 25 Tamil civilians carrying white flags entered a government-held area in the northern district of Vavuniya and were provided with shelter and meals by the troops in the forward defence lines, a military official said.

An exodus of civilians from the island's troubled regions is usually a first sign of stepped up fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger guerrillas who are campaigning for independence.

Government forces last month dismantled a de facto local government run by the guerrillas at Vakarai and indicated they were planning to move towards rebel strongholds elsewhere in the island's north.

More than 60,000 people have been killed in the island's 35-year-old Tamil separatist campaign.

A truce arranged and put in place from February 23, 2002 marks its fifth anniversary this week amid worsening violence and dim prospects of reviving negotiations stalled since October 2006.

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