Colombo: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga on February 4 asked her cohabitation government to go public with its Norwegian-backed peace plan as the island's Tamil-dominated areas boycotted the country's 55th anniversary of its Independence from Britain.

The authorities were forced to cancel a cultural show in the Northern town of Vavuniya where unsigned posters announced that the "Independence" was not for minority Tamils.

The government believed that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) may have been behind the boycott campaign, though the rebels made no official announcement on the celebrations.

Addressing the nation from Colombo's Independence square, where the main official ceremony was held, Kumaratunga asked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to unveil his plans for a final peace deal with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Kumaratunga, who is opposed to Wickremesinghe's handling of the peace process, said it was time the government revealed its plans to Parliament and the country.

"All the stakeholders in government and Parliament, as much as all our peoples, must be kept informed of the policy framework the government wishes to employ to achieve peace. The vision and action plan must even now be clearly formulated and presented to the country," Kumaratunga said.

"While congratulating the Prime Minister and his team for positive results achieved, I recommend a deep study of the causes for the setbacks and failures encountered in the past one year," she added.

She insisted that core political issues underlying the decades-old conflict should be taken up at future talks with the LTTE. The next round of peace talks is scheduled to open in Berlin or Japan on February 7.

PTI