Islamabad: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said talks between her and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe over sharing power have not broken down and a new round of dialogue would commence later this month even as she alleged that the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) consolidated its military strength during the current peace process by recruiting over 11,000 new cadre.

"Discussions between us have not broken down, discussions are ongoing. Talks will start after New Year holidays. I truly hope that we can come to a truly negotiated settlement," said Kumaratunga, at the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) Summit before she left for home.

She alleged, "The LTTE during the ongoing peace process increased its cadre by three times from around seven thousand to over 18,000. Quite a few of them are small children and forcible recruitment was going on."

Kumaratunga, whose decision to take over the powerful Defence portfolio triggered a major political crisis with Wikremesinghe, said, "The military consolidation of LTTE went on unabated as Norwegian facilitators appeared helpless in stopping rebels from beefing up their military strength."

"The Norwegians cannot stop them. The LTTE has opened up several military training camps, many new ones, in violation of the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) and they are going on regardless," she alleged.

"Since the beginning of the peace process last year, the separatist Tamil rebel group killed around 100 cadres and local leaders of the moderate Tamil parties, Kumaratunga alleged."

"With great impunity, they killed a lot of Sri Lankan military personnel," she said, adding despite the bad tidings there was still room for optimism. "Still, there is a cause to think that there may be a little chance to keep trying with LTTE for peace," she said.

Referring to her own differences with Wickremesinghe, Kumaratunga said the peace talks have been stalled since March 2003 due to problems between her and Wickremesinghe.

"There is another problem, whether I have to take the Defence portfolio. The Prime Minister has decided that he does not want to do the peace process, unless he gets Defence portfolio back- lock stock and barrel. This is not possible," she said.

She said it was her fault to part with the Defence portfolio in the first place when Wikremesinghe formed his Government after securing majority in Parliament.

"Constitutionally I did something I should not have done, in giving the Defence portfolio two years ago with all the other ministries, because Constitution stipulates that President was the sole authority to exercise Defence powers in the country," she said.

"But I gave it, fully aware of this, simply because I was not keen to have it. But there were problems that arose because of the problems of mismanagement due to which I have taken it back," she added.