Colombo: Sri Lanka's ruling party is likely to issue an ultimatum to President Chandrika Kumaratunga on calling a snap poll if she does not co-operate with a proposed Constitution amendment to trim her sweeping powers.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) would demand that the President either co-operate with its proposal to amend the Constitution to clip her power to dissolve Parliament at the end of its first year or let her party, now in the Opposition in Parliament, face an election, the 'Daily News' said.

The bickering between the two leaders, who share power through the presidency and the Parliament, may seriously jeopardise ongoing moves to forge a lasting peace with the Liberation of Tamil Tiger Elam (LTTE), but the government sees a fresh election as a means of strengthening its peace initiative.

The UNP’s district functionaries met at the Prime Minister's residence here on August 4 and finalised an offer to Kumaratunga that she would have to accept if she wished to avoid a poll that might further weaken her people's alliance.

The decision is likely to be ratified at a meeting of the party's working committee on August 5."If the President fails to agree to our demands, the government is likely to call a snap general election," a Cabinet Minister said.

The plan is an apparent attempt to defeat the President's likely moves to sack a Minister or two with whom she is at loggerheads, the report said.

A section of pro-government media is already talking of an impending "Constitutional coup" by the President by dismissing the Prime Minister and replacing him with one of her supporters like former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.

PTI