Presidential hopefuls campaign on peace and prices in Lanka

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse was kicking off his campaign from the historic town of Anuradhapura on Sunday, a day after his main rival, former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe addressed supporters at another historic city.

"The prime minister is offering peace with dignity," a spokesman for his office said even as his campaign managers were trying to put together an election manifesto incorporating pre-poll deals with two nationalist groups.

He is also promising to lower the cost of living with more Marxist-oriented economic policies.

Opposition leader Wickrem-esinghe addressing his first meeting in the central town of Kandy, 112km east of here, on Saturday evening also promised to tackle the cost of living and establish peace.

"First we need to douse the flames of hunger," Wickremesinghe, a market friendly right-winger, told a packed rally in Kandy. "Then we can start addressing the ethnic conflict and for that I seek the support of all."

As nominations closed Friday for the November 17 vote, minority parties had aligned either with leftist Rajapakse or right-wing Wickremesinghe hoping to be kingmakers.

Senior Buddhist monk Narampanawe Ananda said the country's efforts to establish peace with Tamil Tiger rebels had emerged a key issue and the clergy wanted a permanent end to three decades of ethnic bloodshed.

"Ending the conflict is the main challenge before the next president," Ananda told AFP when Wickremesinghe visited Kandy to seek the blessings of the Buddhist hierarchy.

Wickremesinghe asked the influential Buddhist clergy to help unite the majority Sinhalese community, who mainly follow Buddhism.