AFP - Senior Indian officials were due to fly to Colombo Friday to press the Sri Lankan government to protect tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the war, the foreign ministry said.

India's Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan would discuss the severity of the humanitarian crisis facing up to 50,000 people hemmed into the island's northeastern coastal area, it said late Thursday.

"They will convey India's concerns over the rising humanitarian crisis," a foreign ministry official who did not want to be named told AFP.

The United Nations says 95,000 civilians have fled Sri Lanka's war-torn region, but thousands remain trapped between government forces and the cornered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.

Watch FRANCE 24’s in-depth reports In the Tigers' lair: Vellupillai Prabhakaran (28/04/2009) The outraged Tamil diaspora (21/04/2009) Tamil Tigers in Paris (06/04/2007) Tamil civilians caught in the middle (21/02/08) Refugees on the front lines (30/01/09)

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee late Thursday called for measures to evacuate Sri Lanka's stranded civilians.

"The Indian government is very unhappy at the continued killing of innocent Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka," Mukherjee said.

"These killings must stop. The Sri Lankan government has a responsibility to protect its own citizens and the LTTE must stop its barbaric attempt to hold civilians hostage."

"There is no military solution to this ongoing humanitarian crisis, and all concerned should recognise this fact.

"The only lasting solution will come from political efforts to address the real concerns of the Tamil people, giving them lives of dignity within the Sri Lankan mainstream," the foreign minister said.

As international concern mounted for the safety of the trapped civilians, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he had ordered a humanitarian team to northern Sri Lanka.