Colombo: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has called for an end to relentless political bickering in the country and invited Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to work together to find a durable solution to the nation's ethnic conflict.

Kumaratunga's call for political unity in the progress towards peace and economic development came in an address over national television on October 24 night, but elicited only a cautious welcome from the government.

"I propose to you to join hands with me, leaving aside political and other differences, in order that we first formulate a clear programme for peace acceptable to all our peoples," she said.

Cabinet spokesman and Constitutional Affairs Minister G L Peiris on October 25 welcomed the offer of co-operation from the President, but observed that implementing the present government's mandate for peace and economic recovery should be the object of such co-operation.

The President, a critic of the government's concessionary attitude towards the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) as part of its peace efforts, welcomed positive features of the peace process, saying the government was doing the maximum possible to implement its part of the ceasefire accord with the rebels.

However, she warned that the current absence of war did not constitute peace, and highlighted the lack of an agreed agenda to address the underlying political issues and the repeated "violations" of the truce by the LTTE were obstacles to peace.

PTI