BEIRUT, May 22 (Xinhua) -- The fighting between the Lebanese troops and militants around a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon entered the third day on Tuesday, after clashes left at least 79 dead in the previous two days, local daily The Daily Star reported.

¡¡¡¡The paper quoted security sources as saying that by Monday night, 25 militants had been killed and 40 were in custody.

    The army said 30 soldiers had been killed so far in the battle while the media reports put the civilian death toll at 24.

    The army reinforced positions around the camp and rolled in heavier equipment, said the report, adding soldiers stepped up shelling of buildings where members of the Fatah al-Islam group were believed to have taken refuge and launched counterattack with machine guns and grenades.

    Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora's government on Monday stressed the need to "finish off" the Fatah al-Islam, which is still in defiance of the government determination.

    "We have many injured, but we will not give up," The Daily Starquoted the group's spokesman Abu Salim as saying.

    The fighting is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 Civil War.

    Due to the heavy civilian casualty, a brief truce was brokered on Monday after talks between Palestinian officials and Prime Minister Seniora in Beirut to allow humanitarian organizations to evacuate the wounded.

    A total of 32 civilians were evacuated before the fighting resumed at 4:10 p.m. (0210 GMT) local time.

    Some 40,000 displaced Palestinians live at the camp, where is cleared off Lebanese police and soldiers under a 38-year-old deal.

    The fighting started at dawn Sunday after security forces raided homes in the Nahr el-Bared refugee in northern Tripoli to arrest suspects in a bank robbery happened one day ago during which four masked gunmen robbed a bank in the northern town of Amioun and made off with 125,000 U.S. dollars in cash.

    Militants from the faction Fatah al-Islam, which based in the refugee camp, then attacked army posts at the camp, sparking the days-long fighting.