COLOMBO - Amnesty International on Friday urged the UN Security Council to probe war crimes allegations against Sri Lanka, ahead of a briefing to the world body by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The London-based rights watchdog said the Security Council should also demand full humanitarian access to state-run camps where up to 300,000 people who fled Sri Lanka's war zone are being held.

Ban was to brief the council later Friday on his recent visit to the island.

Amnesty called for an international, independent inquiry into the allegations of war crimes that have been levelled against both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"Alternatively, the UN secretary general should establish such an investigation under his own mandate," Amnesty said.

Earlier this week, Ban rejected charges that the UN had deliberately underestimated the death toll in the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

Press reports cited confidential UN estimates that more than 20,000 civilians were killed by Sri Lankan army shelling.

"I should emphasise that the final total is not yet known," Ban said in New York. "Most of these figures do not emanate from the UN and most are not consistent with the information at our disposal."

Ban, however, made it clear that whatever the total, the casualties in the conflict were "unacceptably" high.

The Amnesty statement also cited reports of young men being taken away from the displacement camps by pro-government paramilitary forces and said they risked being tortured or even killed.

Among those detained by the military are six foreign nationals of Sri Lankan origin and three doctors who worked inside the war zone and provided information about civilian casualties.

The Sri Lankan government is also detaining some 9,000 suspected Tamil Tigers without legal safeguards or notice to their families, Amnesty said.