Sri Lankan rebels anger at pact

The Tamil Tigers are frustrated with slow pace of peace negotiations

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have angrily described a new political alliance as a threat to peace which may provoke ethnic war.

They say a pact between two leading parties fails to produce any realistic formula for a negotiated peace settlement to end 20 years of war.

They warned that it could lead to the breakdown of the current ceasefire.

The new alliance has meanwhile questioned the role of international mediators in the peace process.

The BBC's Frances Harrison says that the rebels have watched a political crisis in the Sri Lankan Government for nearly three months and now they are beginning to voice their frustration.

President Chandrika Kumaratunga has been highly critical of the peace strategy pursued by Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe. In November she took over control of three ministries, including defence.

Our correspondent says that the decision of President Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party to ally with leftists who oppose a power-sharing deal for minority Tamils seems to have enraged the Tamil Tigers.

Grave concern

The alliance could come to power if the president decides to call fresh elections, an option she is clearly considering.

The statement of the Tigers describes the newly formed alliance between President Kumaratunga's Freedom Party and the left wing JVP as an incoherent and confused.

It says that the Tiger leadership is studying the pact with grave concern, because both parties are opposed to a peaceful resolution of the island's ethnic conflict and opposed to "Tamil self determination".

The Tigers say that both parties had views that were unacceptable.

President Kumaratunga's Freedom Party has made a new alliance

They have rejected the alliance's idea of broadening the peace talks to include other groups and communities.

Earlier this week the rebels appealed to the international community to save Sri Lanka's peace process, saying the government was in a shambles because of the power struggle between the prime minister and the president.

The new alliance has meanwhile questioned the role of international mediators in peace negotiations

They say that there is dissatisfaction over the role of Norwegian mediators, and that there has been excessive internationalisation of the peace process.

Snap polls

The alliance says there is no question of the country returning to war but our correspondent says it is giving out conflicting signals on the peace process.

The two component parties disagree on whether devolution of power is the answer to the problem.

The president's party says it is willing to discuss anything with the Tigers, while the leftists have rejected the rebels' proposals for power-sharing submitted last year.

As yet, there is still no indication when or if the president plans to call snap polls - something only she can do to resolve the current power struggle with the prime minister.