Prosecutor general Said Mirza filed the charges against 227 militants, 108 of whom have been arrested since May 20 when fighting between the army and Fatah al-Islam erupted at a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.

The charge sheet accuses the militants of murdering Lebanese troops, including 11 officers and 129 soldiers, and of belonging to a terrorist organisation.

It also accuses them of carrying out terrorist acts, undermining the state's authority and attacking its military and security institutions as well as Lebanese troops and civilians.

Among the 119 charged in absentia was the head of Fatah al-Islam, Shaker al-Abssi, whose whereabouts are unknown. His deputy Abu Hureira, a Lebanese whose real name is Shehab al-Qaddur, was killed by security forces earlier this month.

The defendants face the death penalty if convicted of terrorism charges.

Most of them are Lebanese nationals but there are also two Syrians, one Tunisian, one Algerian, five Saudis and a number of Palestinians.

An investigative judge is expected to file a formal indictment against the group in the coming months.

The fighting at Nahr al-Bared between Lebanese troops and Fatah al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda-inspired group considered a terrorist organisation by the United States, is the country's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.

More than 200 people have been killed in the fighting, including 140 soldiers, two of them on Monday.

Army attack helicopters launched six strikes on positions in the battered camp after dawn, backed up by tank and mortar fire, an AFP correspondent said.

"The army is advancing slowly but surely. It is being prudent because of the large number of mined buildings in the area still controlled by the Islamists, and the presence of snipers," a military spokesman said.

Neighbouring villages also came under fire from the Islamists, with rockets hitting Bebnin to the northeast and Deir Ammar to the south, without causing any casualties, military sources on the ground said.

The military estimates that the Islamists now number only around 70 gunmen but that they are holed up in subterranean shelters.

Much of the camp, like Lebanon's other Palestinian refugee camps, was reinforced and given underground shelters and tunnels to withstand possible air raids by Israeli warplanes.

Most of Nahr al-Bared's 31,000 refugee-residents fled at the start of the fighting, with just the wives and children of the Islamists remaining -- a total of about 100 who the army says are being used as "human shields" by those holding out. -AFP