(RTTNews) - Sri Lanka said Monday that it would set up a high-raking inquiry committee to probe a U.S. State Department report, which alleged that the country's security forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels committed possible war crimes and serious human rights abuses during the final phase of their 25-year old conflict.

"The president decided that he will appoint a committee to probe the contents of the report," Sri Lanka's human rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe told a news conference. "This is a democratic country; not a military dictatorship. If somebody makes an allegation, it is our duty to investigate. I think the president's decision should be commended by the whole world."

Samarasinghe said that the establishment of a independent inquiry committee to probe the allegations made in the U.S. report was the right step to take, adding that his government will take a stand on the issue only after the committee submits its findings. He, however, noted that the U.S. State Department clearly stated in the report "that there is no legal basis for this report", adding that the report failed "to confirm whether any of the incidents highlighted were true."

Earlier, a U.S. State Department report released last Thursday suggested that both Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil rebels may have violated the laws of war during the final stages of their 25-year armed conflict. The State Department said that the report compiled "alleged incidents that transpired in the final stages of the war, which may constitute violations of international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity and related harms."

The report pointed out that United States acknowledges the right of every country to defend itself against armed attacks and terrorism, but stressed that the U.S. also expects "states and non-state actors to comply with their international legal obligations."

The Sri Lankan government had initially rejected the U.S. report, with the country's Foreign Affairs ministry stating that the allegations against the government of Sri Lanka appear "to be unsubstantiated and devoid of corroborative evidence." The ministry statement released Thursday added that there "is a track record of vested interests endeavoring to bring the government of Sri Lanka into disrepute, through fabricated allegations and concocted stories."

The latest development comes as the Sri Lankan government was under immense pressure from the international community to resettle some 250,000 war refugees being held in refugee camps since the end of the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels in May.

Several rights groups have warned that continued detention of the war-displaced in closed refugee camps amount to direct violation of international human rights covenants. Their criticisms prompted the Sri Lankan government to promise a visiting UN official last month that it will resettle all the refugees displaced by January.

In May, the Sri Lankan military had claimed victory in its 25-year civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels after recapturing the rebel-held areas and eliminating major rebel leaders, including Tamil Tiger founder and leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, in an year-long final offensive.

Official figures indicate that the final military offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels in the northeastern regions of the country left over 300,000 people homeless, while some 7,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the civil war. An estimated 80,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the country's civil war after the Tamil Tiger rebels launched an armed rebellion in 1983, demanding an independent state for the Tamil minority in the island nation's northern and eastern regions.