Lankan govt rift gets nasty over peace bid

Kumaratunga accused Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, the ruling party candidate for presidential elections, of committing their party to a U-turn on sharing power with minority Tamils to end ethnic bloodshed.

In an interview with the privately-run Daily Mirror, Kumarat-unga said that a deal sealed by the premier with the main Marxist party on Thursday was "unconstitutional" and that she opposed it bitterly.

Rajapakse signed a 13-point pact with the Marxist JVP, or People's Liberation Front, agreeing to drop power sharing with Tamils under a federal system if he is elected president at polls to be held by November.

The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reacted sharply and accused the premier of shattering chances of a resolution of the three-decade-old conflict that has claimed at least 60,000 lives.

Kumaratunga told the newspaper that the premier had kept her in the dark over the deal and informed her only an hour before it was signed.

"That is not the way to inform the president of the country about the pact," she was quoted as saying. "This pact is unconstitutional, and it violates several policies of the party."

Kumaratunga, who is also the leader of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party, had maintained that she is committed to a federal structure for the ethnically divided South Asian nation to end the conflict.

The president had also written a strongly-worded letter to the premier demanding his explanation and vowed that she will not allow elements of the JVP pact to be included in their party's election manifesto.