Colombo, Oct 13: Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe today defended foreign involvement in the island's peace process and said Tamil Tiger rebels would not have sat down to settle the conflict if not for international pressure. The Prime Minister, who is being criticised by President Chandrika Kumaratunga for allegedly compromising sovereignty by inviting more foreign involvement in the peace process, said the country could not have managed the process on its won.

"We could not manage it by ourselves and it does not affect the independence of the country," he said while addressing a meeting here of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for regional cooperation (IOR-ARC). Wickremesinghe referred to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) holding talks overseas to finalise a power-sharing plan aimed at ending the island's drawn out conflict.

"The LTTE has never given a detailed proposal in the course of this year, but they have sat down and discussed for the first time. May be it is what we desire, maybe it is not. "The fact that they sat down and put down a set of proposals due to the international community's involvement."

Wickremesinghe is responsible for reviving the Norwegian-backed peace bid which had been placed on hold when he came to power in December 2001 after defeating President Kumaratunga's party at parliamentary elections.

Bureau Report