COLOMBO. Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's Navy is on alert to prevent the leader of Tamil Tiger rebels from fleeing the island, the state television quoted Naval officials as saying on Sunday.

    Commander D. K. P. Dassanayake, the Sri Lankan Navy spokesman told the ITN television that the Navy had laid a security net around the coast off Mullaithivu in the north.

    "We have our fast attack craft, speed boats, radars and other equipment keeping watch throughout 24 hours," Dassanayake told ITN here Sunday.

    The Navy's defenses had been laid in four rings along an area of 25 nautical mile distance off the Mullaithivu coast.

    The Navy spokesman said that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabakaran is expected to flee the island with his wife and two children.

    Prabakaran's LTTE which has been fighting a bitter separatist war about three decades is now facing serious setbacks in the faceof the advancing Army.

    The LTTE which found themselves evicted from the Eastern Province in July 2007, lost its former administrative headquarters at Kilinochchi in the north early this month. They are now confined to the jungle thickets of Mullaithivu.

    The troops buoyed by success in the battlefields are currently heading towards Mullaithivu where Prabakaran is believed to be located in his jungle bunker hideout.

    Sri Lankan Army chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka stressed that the Tigers would not be allowed to get away from the island.

    On previous occasions when the military made advances into rebel strongholds LTTE leaders fled by boats to the neighboring south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.