The military in Sri Lanka said 26 Tamil Tiger rebels and a navy sailor were killed in a sea battle in the northeastern sea early Monday that lasted several hours.

Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said the sea battle broke out after midnight off Chalai area in the Mullaittivu district and lasted three to four hours.

"As a result of the confrontation, 26 sea Tigers including a leader called Maran were killed and four LTTE boats were destroyed," said Nanayakkara.

The spokesman said one navy sailor was killed while three others were injured in the sea battle.

The clash came as the military said the LTTE's over two-decade- old armed struggle to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamil community is nearing its end as the organization is confined to an area of just 21 sq km in Mullaittivu down from over 15,000 sq km they held when the current military offensive began in 2006.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict since the mid-1980s in one of the world's longest civil wars.

(Xinhua News Agency March 30, 2009)