General Michel Suleyman surveyed the troops amid heavy security and paid tribute to the 123 soldiers who have died in the fighting at the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, located near the northern city of Tripoli.

His visit came amid Army Day celebrations that have proved a rallying point in a country with deep political divisions.

Posters hailing the troops have been plastered on buildings, electricity poles and streets throughout the country ahead of Army Day on Wednesday. Various cities and towns are also holding celebrations this week to honour the soldiers.

An army spokesman who did not wish to be identified said the troops were pursuing their advance deeper into the devastated shantytown where die-hard Fatah al-Islam militants have been fighting the army since May 20.

He said the Islamists still controlled an area of about 15,000 square metres and the army was advancing slowly so as to spare the lives of the 50 or 60 civilians still inside.

"We are periodically appealing to them on loudspeakers to surrender," the spokesman said. "The army is not motivated by vengeance.

"We have told them that they would get a fair trial."

More than 200 people have been killed in the standoff, the deadliest internal violence in Lebanon since the end of the 15-year civil war in 1990. That toll does not take into account the number of Fatah al-Islam dead, which is not known.

The conflict erupted when radical Sunni Muslim Arabs of Fatah al-Islam launched a series of deadly attacks on soldiers around the camp.

Nahr al-Bared's 31,000 refugees have since fled, but the women and children of the Islamist fighters, who are thought to number at least 60, are still inside.

The violence has heightened tensions in a country already in the grip of a grave political crisis that has persisted for the past nine months, paralysing the government in Beirut.-AFP