Colombo, July 25: Sri Lanka's cohabitation crisis worsened today as President Chandrika Kumaratunga accused Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of misleading her and the nation over a peace proposal made to LTTE rebels. Kumaratunga's senior aide Lakshman Kadirgamar said the premier had misled the President on the setting up of an interim administrative structure for the island's embattled northern and eastern regions.

He said a proposal sent to the President by the premier was different from the one he sent to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) through Norwegian special envoy Jon Westborg.

"Against this background, the President has informed... That having being misled as to the document which was actually sent to the LTTE, she is unwilling, in the national interest, to accept the constraint of confidentiality...," Kadirgamar said. He said the President was no longer willing to go along with the "confidentiality" requested by the Prime Minister his communications with her. He released a copy of a letter the premier had written to the president requesting confidentiality until an agreement was reached with the Tamil Tigers about setting up an interim administrative set up.

The guerrillas have made the setting up an interim administrative council for the war-torn areas a pre-condition for reviving the stalled negotiations aimed at ending three decades of ethnic bloodshed.

Kumaratunga's People's Alliance declined to comment on the substance of the proposals sent to the Tigers saying they did not know which proposal was the right one. Bureau Report