Lankan PM seeks snap polls to head off crisis

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (L) reads his notes prior to talking with other cabinet members, during a meeting in Colombo yesterday. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told his cabinet that he was ready to face a snap election four years ahead of schedule to end a bitter stand-off with hostile President Chandrika Kumaratunga. PHOTO: AFP

The government's chief peace negotiator, G. L. Peiris, said they would discuss the crisis with Norwegian peace brokers following President Chandrika Kum-aratunga's sacking of three ministers and suspension of parliament.

But he made it clear that face-to-face talks which the government had expected to hold with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) later this month or in early December will not go ahead until the political turmoil is resolved.

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"Given everything that has happened in the past few days, it is logical to assume that we have to resolve this threshold issue before anything else," Peiris said.

He was referring to the power struggle with Kumaratunga who took over the key portfolios of defence, interior and information from the government of her arch-rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, on Tuesday.

On Sunday Wickremesinghe dropped a bombshell, offering to step down from leading the peace initiative and transfer the responsibility to Kumaratunga.

Wickremesinghe said he could not be responsible for maintaining a truce with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) while a hostile president held onto vital levers of power.

Meanwhile Kumaratunga sent a letter to the premier inviting him for talks on forming a government of national unity.

"In view of the current political situation in the country and my proposal last week to form a government of reconstruction and reconciliation, I would like to meet you in order to discuss your views on this matter," she said.

Kumaratunga, who narrowly survived a Tamil Tiger assassination attempt in 1999, has repeatedly criticised the government for its concessions to the rebels.