Five Sri Lankan doctors who witnessed the bloody climax of the country's civil war in May and made claims of mass civilian deaths as a result of government shelling have recanted much of their testimony.

The men, who have been in police custody for nearly two months for allegedly spreading Tamil Tiger propaganda, were presented by officials at a press conference in Colombo, where they said the rebels had forced them to exaggerate the number of civilian deaths.

The doctors said that only up to 750 civilians were killed between January and mid-May in the final battles of the war, a number far below the estimated 7,000 released by the United Nations.

An investigation by The Times uncovered evidence that more than 20,000 civilians were killed in the final stages of the war — mostly by the Army.

The doctors, who appeared nervous but in decent physical condition, denied they were withdrawing their previous statements under pressure from the government, while expressing hopes they might be released.

The 25-year conflict between the Government and the rebel Tigers effectively ended on May 19. In the weeks running up to its victory, the Government was fiercely criticised by countries including Britain and the United States for not calling a ceasefire to allow civilians to escape the shrinking conflict zone in the northeast where the last Tiger troops were cornered.

At the time, the doctors described the shelling of civilians in the zone, including repeated attacks by Government artillery on a makeshift hospital, which they said was running chronically short of essential supplies.

Yesterday, by contrast, they said that the Tigers took medicine and food shipments sent by the Government and demanded that the doctors tell the media there were shortages.

"The information that I have given is false. ... The figures were exaggerated due to pressure from the LTTE," said Dr V. Shanmugarajah.

Dr Thurairaja Varatharajah, who was the top health official in the war zone, added: "It's difficult for you to believe, but it's true."

The claims were greeted with scepticism by human rights campaigners.

Sam Zarifi, the Asia-Pacific director for Amnesty International, said the statements from the doctors were "expected and predicted".

"There are very significant grounds to question whether these statements were voluntary, and they raise serious concerns whether the doctors were subjected to ill treatment during weeks of detention," he said. "From the time the doctors were detained, the fear was that they would be used exactly this way."

On February 2 Dr Varatharajah had reported that three artillery barrages hit the pediatrics ward and women's wing of a hospital in the war zone, killing nine patients. On Wednesday, he denied the hospital had been hit.

However, the UN and the Red Cross, who had staff at the hospital, confirmed the attacks, the location of the strikes and the death toll. The army denied the attack.

The Government blocked media access to the conflict zone, making the claims from both sides in the war all but impossible to verify.

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