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Sri Lankan president hits out at Tamil peace talks

Sri Lanka's president, seeking to justify the political crisis she set off earlier this week, said the prime minister had put the country "in grave danger" in negotiations with Tamil Tiger rebels.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga attacked her rival's policies in her speech on Friday -- though she concluded her appearance by calling for a government of national unity.

The speech made clear the political upheaval was far from over, and that the already-fragile peace process remained in jeopardy.

It came hours after Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe returned home from an official visit to the US to a raucous welcome, with more than 7,000 supporters crowding into Colombo's airport, and thousands more jamming the streets as his motorcade headed into town.

During the prime minister's trip to Washington to meet with US President George W. Bush, Kumaratunga fired three of his most powerful supporters from the Cabinet, suspended Parliament and declared a state of emergency.

Then, early Friday, she canceled the state of emergency decree -- but officials said she was preparing a new, milder measure to boost the power of the armed forces, which fall under her control.

She defended those moves during her speech, saying the Tigers had taken advantage of peace talks to reinforce their military position by smuggling in weapons and building bases. Kumaratunga, who lost an eye in a 1999 Tiger assassination attempt, has long said the prime minister has given too much ground to the rebels in negotiations.

"The sovereignty of the state of Sri Lanka, its territorial integrity and the security of the nation have been placed in grave danger" by the Wickremesinghe government, she said.

But she concluded her speech by calling on all Sri Lanka's parties to join together, saying politicians should "put country before self and join me in an attempt to form a grand alliance."

The likelihood of that appeared very slim in a country where the president and prime minister regularly exchange public insults.

Wickremesinghe insisted he had not been defeated by his longtime rival the president.

"I would like to say that as far as my government is concerned, the government's majority is intact," he said.

Most of Wickremesinghe's Cabinet -- including the three ousted ministers -- met Friday and voted unanimously that Parliament should be immediately reconvened.
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