Colombo: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga's party today (Jan 20, 2004) formed a "patriotic national alliance" with the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) as a first step to topple the Government of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

United People's Freedom Alliance was formed at the main Bandaranaike International Conference Hall in Colombo amid tight security, with members of Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka's Freedom party and the JVP taking part in the televised ceremony.

"It is our belief that the United National Front Government (of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe), which has created a crisis among all the people who live in Sri Lanka, should be defeated at the earliest possible time," the two parties said in their seven-page memorandum of understanding (MoU).

The parties did not disclose their agreement on sharing seats and portfolios in the event of forming a Government either through a snap election or engineering it.

A similar pact between Kumaratunga's party and the JVP collapsed after five weeks in October 2001 and led to snap Parliamentary elections, which were won by Wickremesinghe's party.

The new alliance is seen here as a prelude to snap elections in the hope of defeating Wickremesinghe's Government, which revived the Norwegian-backed peace process started by Kumaratunga but suspended in April 2001.