Colombo: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party on February 28 announced that it was about to clinch a deal with the Marxists to oust the government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA) said it had four rounds of negotiations with the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), or the People's Liberation Front, and was close to signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU), possibly early next month.

PA spokesman played down the differences between Kumaratunga's PA and the JVP and said they could work together in dealing with the island's drawn out Tamil separatist conflict.

The JVP was earlier accused of assassinating Kumaratunga's actor-turned-politician Vijaya in February 1988. The JVP had also opposed the Indo- Lanka agreement in 1987 and in recent times opposed Norway's involvement in Sri Lanka.

"The Norwegians can come and Norwegian can go," PA spokesman Sarath Amunugama told reporters. "These are logistics we can discuss."

However, Amunugama said they supported the Norwegian-brokered ceasefire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), although last year President Kumaratunga described it as a document that undermined Sri Lanka's sovereignty.

Amunugama said their objection now was the non-implementation of the ceasefire and the Tigers allegedly using the ceasefire to strengthen themselves militarily.

PTI