Colombo: Sri Lanka's minority Freedom Alliance Government today (Sep 3, 2004) secured a simple majority with the eight-member Ceylon Worker's Congress (CWC), an Indian-origin party, deciding to support it.

"We have decided to unconditionally support the Government," CWC leader Armuagam Thondaman said.

With the support of eight CWC members, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Marxist-backed Freedom Alliance, which came to power in the April elections, has 115 seats in the 225-member legislature.

The CWC draws its support from among Tamils of Indian origin who are concentrated in the tea plantations.

Thondaman hoped the Government would now be able to carry forward smoothly its legislative program as well as the stalled peace process.

He said the CWC wants the Government to start negotiations with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) based on the LTTE's Interim Self Governing Authority proposal unveiled in October last year.

The CWC leader said his late grandfather who had been in Governments of both the main political parties in the country had wanted to give an interim council to the Tigers for five years and he was only building on that proposal.