Sri Lanka's navy says it is fighting a sea battle with Tamil rebels, a day after what the military described as the heaviest day of fighting in weeks.
The army says 79 rebels and 10 soldiers died.
There is no word from the rebels.
Government forces are continuing with an offensive to crush the Tigers and Aid workers leave Sri Lanka's north ...
UN aid workers leave Sri Lanka's north ...
'Scores dead' in S Lanka fighting ...
S Asia leaders in Colombo summit ...
Renegade S Lanka leader goes home ... end their fight for a separate state for the ethnic Tamil minority.
Meanwhile, police say Tamils in Colombo have been ordered to register, amid concerns about security.
The BBC's Roland Buerk in Colombo says the most intense battles have been taking place around the fishing port of Nachchikuda in north-western Sri Lanka.
According to the military, 25 Tigers and six soldiers were killed there on Wednesday.
A sea battle has begun between the navy and rebel boats outside the port.
The military has been pushing up the north-western coast, trying to open a land route to the government-controlled Jaffna peninsula.
There were more battles on fronts elsewhere in the north on Wednesday, and the military's spokesman, Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, said it was the heaviest day of fighting for weeks.
The military is continuing a major offensive that has, according to Brig Nanayakkara, brought soldiers just 5.5km (3.5 miles) from Kilinochchi town, where the Tigers have their administrative headquarters.
The rebels have not commented - and the government has barred journalists from the war zone.
The UN and other aid groups pulled out of rebel-held territory on Tuesday after the government said it could not guarantee their safety.
Registration
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Sri Lanka's police, Ranjith Gunasekera, said people who had arrived in the Western Province, including Colombo, from northern districts in the last five years have been ordered to register at a police station on Sunday.
Most affected by the move will be from the ethnic Tamil minority.
The state-controlled Daily News has quoted Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as saying the Tigers were using an influx of people to infiltrate the city and launch attacks.
He said those without what he described as "a valid reason" to stay should go back.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have been fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east for 25 years.
Asked if he planned to obliterate the Tigers, Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa told foreign correspondents on Monday that the military would try, but it would take time.
Human rights groups say that both sides have been responsible for murders and abductions in a war that has killed 70,000 people and is one of South Asia's longest-running and most persistent insurgencies.
(BBC)
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