AFP reports that Malaysian Police Chief Musa Hassan told the New Straits Times daily he had ordered a nationwide alert following reports that Prabhakaran, leader of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may have fled here or to Thailand.

"We are also using our local intelligence network to ascertain if he is already in the country," Musa was quoted as saying by the paper.

"My men will be monitoring all entry points into the country to ensure he does not enter the country," he added, says AFP.

Sri Lankan army chief Sarath Fonseka has said Sri Lankan forces had surrounded and are advancing in the district of Mullaitivu, the last LTTE stronghold and hoped to totally overrun the area in the coming weeks.

Sri Lankan defence sources state the LTTE are now surrounded and restricted to their jungle hideouts in the northeastern corner of Sri Lanka, from where the Sri Lankan troops expect to drive the terrorists into the sea.

The LTTE are banned across Europe, Australia and the United States with an international arrest warrant against Prabhakaran for among other incidents, the 1996 bombing of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka building, which killed 91. He is also wanted in India for complicity in the assassination for former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

There is increasing speculation that Prabhakaran who has publicly pledged to commit suicide, if he fails to achieve the LTTE’s goal of “Tamil Eelam” - a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka, would abandon the Tamil people of the North of Sri Lanka and flee the county to avoid being brought to justice.