Moderates fear for Lankan peace

The main minority Tamil party, the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), said they believed the Norwegian-backed peace process could suffer a fatal blow if premier Mahinda Rajapakse delivered on his election promise.

Rajapakse's pledge Thursday compounded a deadlock between Colombo and the Tamil Tigers over moves to agree on a venue for talks on salvaging their troubled ceasefire that has been in place since February 2002.

Outgoing President Chandrika Kumaratunga slammed Rajapakse for signing the pact without her approval, an official in her office told AFP.

"She has basically accused him of violating party discipline and ignoring democratic norms," said the official who had seen the letter before it was delivered to Rajapakse Friday.

There was no immediate reaction from the prime minister or his office to the strongly-worded letter delivered Friday.

Kumaratunga had also ordered state-controlled media to play down Thursday's deal with the Marxists.

The Daily News pushed a report on Rajapakse's pact with the Marxists to the bottom of the front page while splashing across the top a story on Kumaratunga giving jobs to 700 graduates.

The premier, in his pre-election pact with the island's main Marxist party, pledged to abandon the government's commitment to work towards devolving power to minority Tamils that was part of peace talks in December 2002.

In return, the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, pledged their full support to Rajapakse in the presidential elections to be held between October 22 and November 21.