The European Union boosted pressure on Sri Lanka Tuesday over human rights and called for those committing abuses on the island to be investigated.

`It is essential to put an end to impunity and to all human rights violations,` EU foreign ministers said in a statement after talks in Luxembourg.

The ministers said they were `seriously concerned` about reports of abductions, disappearances and extra-judicial killings, as well as restrictions on the media, in relation to the long-running conflict there.

`The EU repeats its call for possible violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law by all actors to be subject to independent and credible inquiry,` their statement said.

The ministers also worried about people displaced (IDPs) within Sri Lanka by fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels, with more than a quarter of a million people having been kept in camps since the rebels` defeat in May.

They urged Colombo `to ensure that conditions in the camps in all respects are in accordance with internationally accepted standards.`

`There is an urgent need for all IDPs remaining in the camps to be granted freedom of movement as well as full and unimpeded access to them by humanitarian actors,` the statement said.

Sri Lanka has said it needs to screen the civilians for former fighters.

The EU statement comes a week after the bloc threatened to withdraw Sri Lanka`s preferential trading status due to the rights abuses. Colombo has refused to allow an EU inquiry mission access to the island.