SLFP, UNP hold third round of talks

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 October 2006, 11:30 GMT]
Third round of talks between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the main opposition United National Party (UNP) were held in the Jayewardenepura parliamentary complex Tuesday morning, political sources in Colombo said. Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake led the SLFP delegation and Karu Jayasuriya, Deputy Leader of UNP led the UNP team.

Ministers Maithiripala Sirisena, Nimal Sripala de Silva, John Seneviratne and M.Chandrasena for the SLFP delegation, and parliamentarians G.L.Peiris, Milinda Morogoda, John Amaratunge, Ravi Karunanayake, Rukman Senanayake and UNP ex-chairman Malik Samarawickrema for the UNP delegation also participated in the discussions.

Six sub-committees appointed during the second round of talks held on September 19 to go into issues related to ethnic crisis, electoral reform, good governance and nation building submitted their reports at Tuesday’s talks.

The two parties first met on September 15.

Meanwhile, UNP spokesman G.L.Peiris expressed confidence the task of reaching a bi-partisan approach on national issues would be completed by October 15.

Sources said the both parties would soon issue a joint-communiqué about the outcome of the third round of talks.