Raipur/Ranchi, Sep 25 - Home Minister P. Chidambaram Friday said the central government would extend all support to states to counter and defeat leftwing extremism in what would be a 'long-drawn' fight and ruled out the involvement of the army in anti-Maoist operations.

On a whirlwind tour of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to review the internal security situation and the preparedness of police forces, Chidambaram said the central government would go the extra mile to support the two affected states in their efforts to counter the armed rebels.

'It is a long-drawn fight against Naxals (Maoists). The centre is totally supporting Chhattisgarh in its efforts to counter leftwing extremism,' he told reporters at Raipur's state secretariat on his first stop where he reviewed the internal security situation in the wake of police and paramilitary forces mounting an onslaught against the Maoist rebels.

He said his visit to Chhattisgarh was to assure the centre's support in the state's fight against the Maoists and to offer his condolences for the policemen who had laid down their lives while fighting the Maoists.

Referring to the July 12 incident in which 29 police personnel, including Superintendent of Police V.K. Choubey, were killed in a Maoist ambush at Madanwara in Rajnandgaon district, he said the state government had taken prompt action to provide relief to the families of the killed security personnel.

Meanwhile, official sources said the government of Chhattisgarh - India's worst Maoist-hit state - had sought more forces and resources from the centre so that simultaneous operations could be carried out in the state's sprawling, mineral-rich Bastar region where the rebels have held sway since the late 1980s.

Shifting tack in its fight against left-wing extremism, India has drawn up a multi-pronged strategy that will target top leaders, win people through a propaganda war and offer cadres a surrender-and-rehabilitation policy while launching an extensive armed operation in Maoist strongholds across the country.