Rajapakse-Wickremasinghe MoU to be signed late October

[TamilNet, Thursday, 12 October 2006, 11:53 GMT]
Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse and leader of the main opposition United National Party (UNP), Ranil Wickremasinghe, Thursday met and discussed in detail regarding the implementation of six point programme agreed upon by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), main constituent of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) and the UNP following four rounds of talks, political sources in Colombo said.

The participants agreed to sign the MoU between October 23 and 25 in the presence of Mahanayaka Theras of four chapters, religious leaders of all faiths, civil society leaders and foreign diplomats, sources said.

Earlier both parties had said the MoU would be signed before October 15.

The discussion was held Thursday morning at Temple Trees. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Ministers Nimal Sripala de Silva and Susil Premajayantha on behalf of the SLFP and Karu Jayasuriya, G.L.Peiris, Milinda Morogoda, John Amaratunge, Ravi Karunanayake, Rukman Senanayake and Malik Samarawickrema on behalf of the UNP participated in the discussion, sources said.

Mr. Rajapakse is said to have appealed to UNP leader to join his Cabinet to implement the minimum common agenda agreed upon by both parties. Ranil Wickremasinghe is understood to have told the President that the matter would be decided in the UNP executive working committee scheduled for later this week, sources said.

However, both parties expressed that Thursday talks between Rajapakse and Wickremasinghe was a success.