Arbour will meet government officials and representatives of civil society during her visit, said U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss.

The island nation off the southeastern coast of India has been locked in a more than two-decade conflict between ethnic Tamil separatists and the majority Sinhalese-dominated government that has killed more than 70,000 people.

Human rights groups have accused government forces and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels of civilian killings and abductions over the past 22 months.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in August that more than 1,100 abductions or "disappearances" were reported between January 2006 and June 2007 and blamed many of them on the government and its armed allies.

The government said the report was baseless and a violation of the country's sovereignty.

The group also said the rebels were responsible for killing civilians, recruiting child soldiers and extorting from local communities.

HRW has called for a U.N. human rights monitoring mission to work in Sri Lanka, but the government has ruled that out.

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