The leader of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels has been killed along with his son and other rebel commanders, according to reports today.

The death of Velupillai Prabhakaran came as the Government claimed to have seized control of the entire island state for the first time in 26 years, ending Asia's longest-running war.

Prabhakaran was ambushed and shot dead while trying to flee government troops as special forces closed in on the last rebel fortifications, state television said.

That account of events was disputed by a military spokesman who said that there had been no formal identification of Prabhakaran's body.

However, another official source said that the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse would address the nation this evening to announce the death of the Tiger leader.

This morning fighting had continued to rage in the northeast of the country despite the Tigers' admission of defeat on Sunday.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, told The Times that commando units and other crack government troops were trading machine gun fire with “a couple of hundred” of Tiger fighters hunkered down in fortified bunkers, thought to include several senior rebel leaders.

The conflict area had been reduced to a patch of land just 100 metres by 100 metres, he added. Tens of thousands of civilians who had been caught in the crossfire were finally allowed to flee to freedom over the weekend.

A senior defence official said Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to flee the area in an ambulance with two close aides.

"He was killed with two others inside the vehicle," the official told AFP.

The government said that they had found the body of Prabhakaran's 24 year old son Charles Anthony, the heir apparent of the Tigers’ leadership.

The head of the rebels’ political wing, Balasingham Nadesan, the head of the Tigers' defunct peace secretariat, Seevaratnam Puleedevan, and their eastern leader, S. Ramesh were also said to be among the dead.

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