Sri Lankan leader offers olive branch

Reconciliation, not bickering, urges Mrs Kumaratunga

Frances Harrison BBC Colombo correspondent

The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has appealed to her political rivals to join hands in the interests of resolving the country's civil war.

In an address to the nation, notable for its conciliatory tone, President Kumaratunga said petty political bickering must be confined to the pages of history.

The address will do much to remove fears that increasingly strained ties between the president and Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe might derail the peace process just when it seemed to offer the best chance of resolving 19 years of civil war.

The two come from rival political parties and the talk has been of crisis within Sri Lanka's cohabitation government.

Rare praise

In her olive branch, President Kumaratunga even credited her rivals with implementing many successful, positive measures - praise not often heard.

Wickramasinghe: strained ties with the president

As the president put it, the people of Sri Lanka would prefer to hear the sweet sounds of reconciliation rather than petty political bickering.

She appealed to her political opponents to help formulate a clear programme for peace acceptable to all, including the Tamil Tiger rebel group.

There was some criticism of the government's handling of the peace process, that alleged rebel violations of the ceasefire had not been addressed properly, nor the nature of the final political settlement publicly discussed.

But even Mrs Kumaratunga's criticism seemed to reflect caution, rather than outright opposition.

The question now is whether the prime minister will be willing to accept this olive branch gracefully and how long the two leaders and their respective parties can last without wanting to undermine each other once again.