Five people including a relief worker were wounded in an attack on a local aid organisation's vehicle in conflict-torn northeastern Myanmar, the group said Sunday, the second such attack within a week.

The vehicle carrying 13 people, mostly civilians and journalists, was attacked Saturday afternoon as it travelled from Laukkai, a town in the northern state of Shan bordering China where battles between ethnic Kokang rebels and the Myanmar army have raged for nearly two weeks.

Myanmar's army intensified an offensive to flush out rebels from areas around a flashpoint town on the northeastern border with China, state media said Friday, after 11 days of fighting displaced tens of thousands of people.

The conflict, which flared on February 9 when ethnic Kokang rebels killed nearly 50 soldiers during a series of attacks on Laukkai town, has seen at least 30,000 people flee into China, prompting Beijing to call for an end to the clashes.

Aid workers called Thursday for a ceasefire to allow the evacuation of people trapped around a town at the center of fierce fighting between Myanmar's army and ethnic rebels, after the deaths of two more civilians in an area cloaked in a state of emergency.

Tens of thousands of civilians have already fled the remote and rugged Kokang area of northeastern Shan State over the last 10 days, with at least 30,000 crossing the border into China.

Nearly 90,000 civilians in northeastern Myanmar are believed to have fled clashes between troops and ethnic rebels, an official said Wednesday, as sporadic violence hampered efforts to evacuate those still trapped.

Rebels fear the national army is planning a major assault following the imposition of a state of emergency in the Kokang region of Shan state on Tuesday.

Myanmar on Tuesday declared a state of emergency in a conflict-torn border region, where ferocious fighting between the army and ethnic rebels has sent thousands fleeing airstrikes and fierce gun battles.

Civilians have come under fire in the deadly clashes between the army and Kokang rebels in Shan state, local officials said, in fighting that has uprooted tens of thousands in the past week and sent a flood of refugees into China, which has voiced alarm over the escalating bloodshed.

Growing fighting between Myanmar's army and ethnic Kokang fighters in a region bordering China has killed dozens in the past week and sent tens of thousands fleeing across the frontier, reports said Monday.

China warned of a threat to border stability after the dramatic upsurge in conflict in a remote region in Myanmar's northeastern state of Shan.

Around a dozen ethnic rebels have been killed in a firefight with Myanmar troops and a further eight captured after renewed clashes in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border, state media said Sunday.

Myanmar's military has for several days carried out airstrikes and ground assaults on rebel positions in retaliation for an attack last week on a key army headquarters in the Kokang region.

Myanmar rebels Saturday said the national army had launched fresh air strikes following the government's rare admission that dozens of its soldiers had died in a dramatic resurgence of conflict in a remote region bordering China.

Unrest in Kokang, Shan State, which erupted on February 9 after six years of relative calm, continued on Friday with severe clashes between fighters from several ethnic groups and the Myanmar army, according to Captain Tar Parn La, a spokesman for the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi addressed a crowd of thousands Friday in the biggest celebrations honoring her independence hero father in memory, underscoring her legacy months before leading the opposition to momentous elections.

In scenes reminiscent of her triumphant election campaign three years ago, Suu Kyi addressed a huge crowd in her father's central Myanmar birthplace, with many supporters waving her party flag or portraits of Aung San as an earnest young revolutionary in a military cap.

Heavy fighting between Myanmar's army and rebels has killed 47 soldiers, state media said Friday, sending a flood of people across the border with China and overshadowing hopes for a national ceasefire as a crucial election looms.

Myanmar has informed Beijing about the clashes, which have raged since February 9, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar, marking a dramatic resurgence of conflict with largely ethnic Chinese rebels in the Kokang region in Shan State.