Sri Lankan rebels deny illegal use of US satellite

"We are accessing it legally and there is no signal piracy," a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Rasiah Ilanthiriyan, said from the northern town of Kilinochchi.

A spokesman for Intelsat, the world's largest commercial satellite communications provider, says it is pursuing avenues to terminate what it said was the "illegal" use of one its satellites by the LTTE.

LTTE is designated as a foreign terrorist organisation by the US.

The rebels declined to discuss their arrangement with the service provider, but insisted they had not done anything illegal.

Intelsat says it has met Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the US to discuss the issue.

Rebels vow to fight government advance

The Tamil Tigers have vowed to push back against an advance by government troops in the east of Sri Lanka and accused the military of "genocidal activities".

The LTTE denied military claims they were retreating in the face of an onslaught in the Eastern Province, where they were ejected from a coastal stronghold in January, and said they would retaliate "very soon."

"As far as the LTTE is concerned we have adjusted our tactics according to the needs and we have not withdrawn from the east," the LTTE's political leader S. P. Thamilselvan said.

"I believe only our actions in the coming period will answer the propaganda (of the government) whether the Sri Lankan military has won a stable victory," he said.

Mr Thamilselvan, who is also the group's top peace negotiator, said the military was "behaving like an occupational force that has let loose its genocidal activities against the Tamil people" in the east.

Defence ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe says the rebels are on the run in the coastal Eastern Province, where they have been restricted to a jungle area just outside the lagoon town of Batticaloa.

The Sri Lankan military says its operations against the Tigers in the east are a "defensive humanitarian operation."

The LTTE has waged a 35-year campaign for independence that has claimed more than 60,000 lives.