Minister says the president will appoint a high level committee

The US State department last week submitted a detailed report to the Congress outlining serious human rights violations allegedly committed by the security forces and the LTTE during the last stages of the war.

Human Rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told journalists in Colombo that President Rajapaksa is to appoint a committee to inquire into the allegations.

'Humanitarian operation'

The ministry of foreign affairs in a statement meanwhile said that the security forces were only engaged in a "humanitarian operation to free Tamil population from the clutches" of the LTTE.

	The US report is highly critical of the government and the LTTE

The ministry insisted that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has given clear instructions to the armed forces that military operations must only be directed at the LTTE.

The Sri Lankan military has blamed civilian deaths on the Tigers, saying they are using people as human shields, while the military was accused of indiscriminate bombing.

US Ambassador- at-Large for War Crimes Issues Stephen Rapp told the BBC of credible reports that these acts have killed "thousands of civilians".

War crimes probe

"Hundreds of thousands of people trapped in this area were essentially denied adequate food and medical care," he added.

The UN high commission is not there to propagate the ideas of one region alone. It has been established to serve all 192 of the United Nations Minister Samarasinghe on UN call for war crimes inquiry

Meanwhile, the United Nations has called for an inquiry similar to one that looked into fighting in Gaza to determine if war crimes were committed in Sri Lanka in the final stages.

"There hasn't been a full inquiry into what did or did not happen in the last months of the war," Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights said.

Minister Samarasinghe rejected the call requesting the UN High Commissioner to "desist from committing such acts".

He said: "The UN high commission is not there to propagate the ideas of one region alone. It has been established to serve all 192 of the United Nations."