David Cameron has become the first foreign leader to visit northern Sri Lanka since 1948, where he met leaders of the Tamil minority in the country.
The Tamils' treatment at the end of the country's civil war dominated the run-up to the Commonwealth summit, which opened in the capital Colombo earlier.
The UK prime minister has defied calls for him to boycott the event in protest against alleged human rights abuses.
The BBC's Nick Robinson said he had been greeted by rival protestors.
Mr Cameron has insisted there should be a proper investigation into alleged Sri Lankan war crimes in the final months of the conflict which ended in 2009, saying a process of "truth-telling" was essential for reconciliation.
In a highly symbolic move, Mr Cameron travelled to the Tamil-dominated north of the country - the first international leader to do so since Sri Lankan independence.
'Desperate'He toured a library in Jaffna - which was repeatedly attacked and rebuilt during the conflict - and met the new chief minister of the northern province - former judge CV Vigneswaran, of the Tamil National Alliance.
As Mr Cameron's entourage was leaving the public library, a group of screaming women - desperate to make their representations directly to the first world leader to come here - pressed photographs and petitions into our hands
The BBC's political editor, who is travelling with Mr Cameron, said the prime minister had been greeted by a group of mainly women who claim their relatives disappeared during the conflict and who were "absolutely desperate" to press pictures of their loved ones and petitions into the hands of British officials.
Although several protestors had been thrown to the floor by police, he said it was a peaceful demonstration and the prime minister had been made "fully aware of their grievances and their grief".
There was also a rival demonstration by pro-government supporters calling for an investigation into alleged abuses during the period of British rule prior to 1948.
Before returning to Colombo, he also visit the offices of the Uthayan newspaper, whose presses were burned down earlier this year and whose journalists have been routinely attacked.
He praised the journalists' "bravery" for working in such intimidating conditions.
The Sri Lankan government has reacted angrily to suggestions the prime minister will press President Mahinda Rajapaksa over human rights during the three-day Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm).
One minister said earlier this week he had no right to raise the issue.
President Rajapaksa rejects accusations of rape, executions and indiscriminate shelling, saying the end of the war had brought peace, stability and the chance of greater prosperity to the country.
But campaigners have said an international investigation is needed into the bloody conclusion to the civil war, in which UN estimates some 40,000 people were killed.
"The Sri Lankans have got their own domestic process, but frankly it's fatally flawed and it's not going to deliver any real justice to the people who were killed," David Mepham, UK director of campaign group Human Rights Watch, said.
"The other thing, which is equally important, is that there needs to be real pressure on the ongoing human rights issues. This isn't just a problem of the past."
There was heavy security around the Palaly air base near Jaffna when the aircraft carrying the British delegation landed.
David Cameron first went to the famous Jaffna library to meet the main Tamil political party leaders.
Hundreds of relatives of those who went missing in the government's war against the Tamil Tiger rebels held a protest rally to attract his attention.
Some of them had tied black ribbons over their mouths and some were holding photos of their missing relatives.
They were all shouting slogans demanding international investigation into alleged war crimes.
When the British delegation was leaving the building, protesters surged forward to get their attention pushing photographs of their missing loved ones and petitions towards the convoy.
Police pushed them back; some of the protesting women fell to the ground. Pro-government supporters also held a protest rally outside the library.
Mr Cameron has also visited the leading Tamil Daily Uthayan's office, which was torched and several of its reporters killed during the war.
Many Tamils in Jaffna have broadly welcomed the visit of Mr Cameron saying it has helped to highlight their issues to the outside world.
The prime ministers of Canada, India and Mauritius are staying away from the summit in protest over the allegations.
Gordon Campbell, the Canadian High Commissioner to the UK, told the BBC that Sri Lanka had "turned its back on the very principles that the Commonwealth espouses".
The Labour Party said Mr Cameron's presence was a "reward" for the Sri Lanka president.
"There was a naivety about the British government's approach to this summit," shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said. "The scale of the suffering has not been challenged in the way it should have been in past months."
But the UK administration argues it is better to be there to highlight the issue and put pressure on the Sri Lankans.
The prime minister dismissed Labour's call for a boycott as "rank hypocrisy", pointing out it was his predecessor Gordon Brown who originally agreed the summit venue in 2009.
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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa defended the country's record on human rights in a speech
Speaking from the summit, Foreign Secretary William Hague told Today: "There's a great deal of evidence about war crimes, and that is why we have called for an independent, thorough, credible investigation.
"There should be an investigation - if there isn't, then we will be in favour of an international investigation.
"But it's also important to be able to work with people in this country of all persuasions and backgrounds. We do that with people from all walks of life in Sri Lanka and they welcome that."
The Prince of Wales, who celebrated his 65th birthday on Thursday, is representing the Queen at the biennial event which he opened earlier.
Prince Charles told the summit: "Each one of us is here because of the hope and trust we place in the Commonwealth to bring that 'touch of healing' to our troubles and deliver the very best future for our people."
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