Updated

Sri Lanka's government says a United Nations' report last week "appears to be another attempt at castigating Sri Lanka for militarily defeating" the Tamil Tiger guerrillas who fought for a separate state in the Indian ocean island.

The report said inadequate efforts by the world body to protect civilians during the bloody final months of the civil war marked a "grave failure." A separate U.N. report released last year said up to 40,000 ethnic minority Tamil civilians may have been killed in the war's final months.

On Friday, the External Affairs ministry said parts of the report made allegations directed at Sri Lanka's government that are "regrettably unsubstantiated, erroneous and replete with conjecture and bias."

The civil war ended in 2009 after the government forces crushed the rebels.