Rajapakse, Wickremasinghe meet to find national consensus

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 12 September 2006, 08:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and Ranil Wickremasinghe, Leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) Monday held a one hour discussion at Temple Trees residence in Colombo regarding the invitation to reach a southern consensus on peace process.

The discussion which commenced around 6.30 p.m. had lasted for about an hour. Maithiripala Sirisena, Minister and general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government participated in the discussion with President Mahinda Samarasinghe.

Karu Jayasuriya, Deputy Leader of the UNP assisted Mr.Ranil Wickremasinghe in the discussion which centred on several issues regarding the stalled peace process, the current security situation and the formation of a national government to find a southern consensus on finding a political solution to the ethnic conflict.

UNP sources said the party would nominate a five member team to continue the talks with SLFP team led by Mr.Maithiripala Sirisena as requested by President Mahinda Rajapakse.

President Mahinda Rajapakse last week invited the UNP to join his government to work out a common approach to find a political settlement to the ethnic conflict. UNP responded to the invitation positively that the party would offer unconditional support to the President's initiative.