Colombo, Nov 27: Talks to end a power struggle between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe are progressing well, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said today. The atmosphere at the talks - attended by representatives of the two leaders - is "encouraging," G L Peiris said without providing details.

Kumaratunga, who accuses the prime minister of making too many concessions to the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, moved earlier this month to curtail Wickremesinghe's power, taking control of three top ministries and suspending Parliament. The political turmoil prompted the government to drop efforts to coax the Tamil tiger rebels back into Norwegian-mediated peace talks, which were suspended in April. The Norwegians also said they would stay on the sidelines until the political dispute was mended.

However, the President and premier set up a committee last week to advise them on how to work together on key national issues and resolve the crisis.

Peiris said the two plan to hold another round of direct talks at the end of next week. "Our expectation by then is that preparatory work (by the committee) would have been done to a great extent to enable some sort of agreement on critical issues," he said.

The row between Kumaratunga and Wickremesinghe threatens efforts to end two decades of civil war in Sri Lanka.

Bureau Report