Colombo:  In a fast paced development 18 opposition legislators defected to join the Sri Lankan Government of President Mahinda Rajapakse today (Jan 28, 2007), leading to a major cabinet reshuffle in which the Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera was replaced.

Samaraweera has been replaced by Enterprise Development Minister Rohitha Bogollegama. Samaraweera, however, retains his Ports and Aviation portfolio.

President Rajapakse expanded his cabinet to a record 53-members to accommodate 18 defectors from the United National Party (UNP), media minister Anura Yapa said today.

"We were a minority government, but with today's cross-overs, we have a simple majority in parliament," Yapa said.

President Rajapakse, who is also the minister of defence and finance, gave cabinet positions to 10 defectors while eight others were given junior ministries, the minister said.

Sri Lanka's main Muslim leader Rauf Hhakeem, who had been in the Opposition since 2004, joined the cabinet as Minister of Posts and Telecommunications.

The latest development has put in danger a landmark deal between two major Sinhalese party aimed at ending decades of separatist violence in the island.

The government will no longer be a minority party in the 225-member legislature, though still lacking the two-thirds majority needed to make any radical changes to the constitution to secure a peace deal with the Tiger rebels.

The opposition UNP accused the president of accepting the defectors in violation of a deal in October to have a bipartisan approach to resolving the island's ethnic conflict.