NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon - Lebanese troops on Monday resumed their bombing of Islamist militants holed up for more than two months in a refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

Canons fired a shell every three minutes on the positions of the die-hard Fatah al-Islam militants who responded with machine gun fire from the Nahr al-Bared camp.

An army spokesman said the clashes intensified after a morning lull in the fighting.

"The army is responding to the source of fire from inside the camp and continues to remove booby-traps left behind by Fatah al-Islam in destroyed buildings," he said.

On Sunday, four Lebanese soldiers were killed in the clashes around the camp.

The latest deaths took to 116 the number of Lebanese troops killed in more than two months of fighting, according to the army.

The total death toll from the battle that has been raging since May 20 has exceeded 200, according to estimates not taking into account the bodies of Islamists remaining inside Nahr al-Bared camp.

Almost all of the camp's 31,000 residents have been evacuated, as well as Palestinian militants not involved in the showdown.

However, around 20 women and 45 children related to the Islamists have remained inside the besieged settlement despite the military having blared messages to them with loudspeakers to leave the largely destroyed camp.

The din of sporadic gunfire and the impact of rocket-propelled grenades could be heard Monday morning in the so-called "old camp," witnesses said, referring to densely populated neighborhoods where most of the remaining fighters were thought to be barricaded.

In a statement Sunday night, the military called on the Fatah Islam gunmen "to give themselves up quickly before it's too late" and also to let their families leave the camp.

The army has halted its heavy artillery and tank bombardment of the remaining Fatah Islam positions over the past three days, possibly to allow for the evacuation of the militants' families.

The military statement said troops had seized weapons and sophisticated military equipment as they pushed their way into the camp.

"The army units are still working to eliminate mines, booby traps and barriers in order to ensure the troops' movement and safety," the statement said.

The militants have recently been firing Katyusha rockets on nearby villages on almost a daily basis in what appears to be a new tactic to ease the army's pressure. A Lebanese teenager was killed and a young girl was injured last week in rocket attacks on villages near the camp.

Fatah Islam spokesman Abu Salim Taha has also warned they would send suicide bombers against the army if it continued its offensive.

The conflict with Fatah Islam militants is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war. At least 60 militants and more than 20 civilians have been killed in the fighting, according to the Lebanese government and U.N. relief officials. -Agencies