Lanka mulls Tigers' settle or secede call

President Chandrika Kumara-tunga's People's Alliance said it was looking at the speech made Thursday by Tamil Tiger Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran who said the political turmoil had endangered the peace initiative.

"We don't want to give a piecemeal reaction," party spokesman Sarath Amunugama said. "We are studying the speech and we will come up with a detailed response next week."

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The president's party had earlier been quick to criticise the Tamil Tigers as well as the Norwegian-backed peace bid, but diplomats said the party appeared to be taking a more measured approach amid international pressure not to scuttle the peace process.

Prabhakaran in his speech denied allegations by Kumaratunga that the rebels were re-arming, recruiting and strengthening themselves taking advantage of an Oslo-brokered truce since February 23 last year.

The press here reported Prabhakaran's speech made at the culmination of their heroes' week celebrations to honour 17,708 war dead, but made no comments. There was also no immediate comment from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's government.

Prabhakaran, who marked his 49th birthday Wednesday, said a power struggle between Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe had cast doubts over the peace process.

Kumaratunga sacked three ministers in Wickremesinghe's government and suspended parliament for two weeks on November 4, four days after the Tigers unveiled their first ever blueprint for peace.

In the ensuing political crisis, peace-broker Norway suspended its involvement in the process saying they needed "clarity" on who was really in charge in Colombo.

"Whatever the reasons she (Kumaratunga) attributes to her actions, it has now become a universal truth that she took this serious action as an immediate response to our draft proposals," Prabhakaran said. "As a consequence ... the peace process is severely endangered."