Friday, June 10 2005 12:48 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Colombo: A key ruling coalition partner in Sri Lanka today (Jun 10, 2005) threatened to withdraw support to President Chandrika Kumaratunga's Government on June 16 if she failed to back off from her tsunami aid-sharing deal with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), sparking a fresh political crisis in the strife-torn country.

"We will leave the Government on June 16 if the President does not withdraw the joint mechanism plan with LTTE by the end of the 15th," the Marxist JVP or People's Liberation Front said.

Any pull out by the JVP, which has 39 seats in 225-member Parliament, will lead to automatic collapse of the Government, which has a slender majority of five.

We will block any attempt by the President to enter into a "joint mechanism" to distribute foreign aid for survivors of the December 26 tsunami, JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe told reporters in Colombo.

"This is a violation of the sovereignty of the country. We will not allow it," Amarasinghe said referring to Kumaratunga's move to establish a joint mechanism with Tigers.

"The President has no right to share sovereignty with anyone, particularly a terrorist organisation like the LTTE."

He said a joint mechanism was not needed to help tsunami survivors and said the affected coastal residents had been helped for nearly six months through the existing administrative structures. "The Government is now even trying to change the name of the Joint mechanism to make it sound like a humanitarian thing... Sorry, we will not allow it."

Amarasinghe said they will make sure that their decision to quit the Government will not be to the advantage of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), which has been backing Kumaratunga's peace overtures to the Tigers.