COLOMBO: The ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) on Friday formed a special committee to "coordinate" with political parties, which are supporting Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse in the November 17 Presidential poll.

The committee, headed by Mr. Rajapakse, will "work in a manner that will respect the policies of all such parties, while acting to protect and nurture the policies of the SLFP and its identity," an SLFP statement said.

The decision was taken at the SLFP central committee meeting, which was convened amid reports of differences between President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Mr. Rajapakse over the alliance reached between the Prime Minister and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU).

A key difference is over the nature of a solution to the separatist conflict. For a decade since she was first elected President in 1994, Ms. Kumaratunga has advocated a switchover to a federal set-up, and proposed a draft constitution, which will give extensive devolution aimed at changing the unitary island-state to a union of regions. In his pacts with the JVP and the JHU, Mr. Rajapakse, however, reiterated status quo on the unitary state.

"The situation was confusing, but now that has been defused," a senior SLFP central committee member told The Hindu after Friday's meeting. Another SLFP member blamed the differences on the party's political rivals.

Speculation was rife that Ms. Kumaratunga might exercise the constitutional option of dissolving Parliament as that would pose a direct challenge to the electoral prospects of the JVP, a former ruling ally which broke away from the United People's Freedom Alliance coalition protesting against the Post-Tsunami Operational Management Structure, aimed at sharing international financial assistance with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

There was no statement from Ms. Kumaratunga, who left for Paris on Saturday morning to address the 33rd session of United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation.

Hopes on EU move

At a press conference here on Friday, Cabinet spokesperson Nimal Siripala de Silva expressed the hope that the European Union's moves against the LTTE would "influence" the rebel group to return to negotiations.

Earlier this week, the EU said its member-states would not receive LTTE delegations and declared its "condemnation of the continuing use of violence and terrorism" by the outfit.

The LTTE said the declaration was a "serious setback" to the peace process and "urged" the EU to "rescind" it.

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