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
