The parents of slain Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran have sought shelter with Sri Lankan security forces after fleeing the offensive against the rebels, the military said on Thursday.

The parents of Velupillai Prabhakaran were identified among civilians who escaped the war zone in northeastern Sri Lanka where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fought its final battle, spokesperson Udaya Nanayakkara said.

"They (the parents) have been identified at the Manik Farm welfare camp," Nanayakkara said. "They are not being treated as suspects."

Menik Farm, 250 kilometres north of Colombo, is Sri Lanka's biggest war refugee complex housing some 200 000 civilians.

Government troops announced the defeat of the separatist rebels a little over a week ago.

Velupillai, a retired district land officer, had been living in neighbouring India and had reportedly returned to Sri Lanka's embattled north following a February 2002 truce which was formally ended at the start of last year.

Nanayakkara said the military carried out DNA genetic finger printing and identified Tiger leader Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony who were killed last week during a confrontation with security forces in Mullaittivu.

The military said it killed Prabhakaran on May 18 and his body was identified the following day.

The guerrillas initially denied Prabhakaran was killed, but later announced that he had died fighting a day earlier on 17 May.

Ethnic Tamils displaced by the fighting are now being held in camps ringed by barbed wire and security forces, who say they need to weed out former rebel fighters disguised as civilians.

AFP

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