PA-UNF committee meets again

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 04 February 2004, 02:56 GMT]
Amid speculation in political circles that there would be a permanent breakdown of talks between President Ms Chandrika Kumaratunge and Prime Minister Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe in arriving at a consensus to end the current political crisis, the committee discussing ways to bring an amicable settlement between the executive and the legislative branches met again Tuesday, political sources said.

The committee comprises senior advisor to Sri Lanka's President, Mr.Mano Tittawela, and United National Party Chairman, Mr.Malik Samarawickrema. Since the take over of three key ministries, defense, interior and media on November 4 last year by Ms.Kumaratunge, the committee has been conducting discussions to break the deadlock between UNF and PA, sources said.

Sri Lanka President's secretary Mr. S.Karunaretna and Wickremesinghe's senior advisor Mr.Bradman Weerakoon also participated in Tuesday's meeting, sources said.

The committee Tuesday held detailed discussion to resolve the outstanding differences. However it is reliably learnt that new proposals have been formulated to be submitted to the President and Prime Minister by the committee at Tuesday discussion, sources said.

At the end of discussion, the committee decided to meet again on February 9, sources said.

Meanwhile, the Presidential secretariat Tuesday rejected the allegation by the United National Front government that the state media is being used to disrupt the talks held by the UNF-PA peace committee, sources said.