Sri Lankan leader Mahinda Rajapaksa has declared the country "liberated" from Tamil Tiger rebels after a 26-year war.

Rajapaksa made the announcement in a speech to the country's parliament, a day after the army said rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed, the BBC reported.

Sri Lankan television stations broadcast footage of a body purported to be that of Prabhakaran.

Tamil media outside Sri Lanka have denied the army's claims that the Tiger chief is dead. After a day of feverish speculation over Prabhakaran's fate, Sri Lankan army chief Lt Gen Sarath Fonseka announced on state television that his body had been found.

"A few hours ago, the body of terrorist leader Prabhakaran, who ruined this country, was found on the battleground," he said, adding that it had been positively identified using DNA testing.

Television pictures showed Sri Lankan troops standing over a bloated, uniformed corpse, whose face closely resembled that of the rebel leader.

The forehead had been covered with a cloth, but the face was exposed, its eyes and mouth open.

The Tigers had been fighting for a separate state for Tamils in the north and east of Sri Lanka since the 1970s.
More than 70 000 people have been killed in the conflict and thousands displaced.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels condemned civilian casualties and called for an inquiry into alleged war crimes by both sides.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office said he was planning to visit Sri Lanka, but did not provide details.