Lankan Muslim party threatens to quit govt

The National Unity Alliance, a member of President Chandrika Kumaratunga's ruling coalition, said it will quit in two days unless she drops a deal clinched with the Tigers on Friday to distribute billions of dollars in tsunami aid from international donors.

"We have decided to give the government 48 hours' notice and thereafter we will leave," deputy leader M.L.M. Hizbullah said, adding that as a first step he quit the politically-appointed post of chief of airports.

Following the withdrawal of support by Marxist allies earlier this month, Kumaratunga lost a majority in parliament.

However, the main opposition United National Party has said it will support the government to ensure implementation of the aid-sharing pact with Tamil rebels, who waged a 30-year conflict with the government until a Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in February 2002.

There was no immediate reaction Sunday from the government to the resignation threat.

Hizbullah said the concerns of Muslims, the country's second largest minority after the Tamils, had been ignored and they lacked sufficient representation in the aid deal.

Muslims account for about 7.5 percent of the country's 19.5 million population. The majority Sinhalese represent 70 percent while the rest are ethnic Tamils.

The government and Tamil Tiger rebels ended months of secret negotiations by sealing a deal Friday to jointly distribute foreign aid in guerrilla-held areas, but the arrangement sparked protests.

Six months after giant waves destroyed much of the island's coastal infrastructure, killing 31,000 people and initially leaving a million homeless, the authorities have yet to name members to run the joint mechanism inked Friday.

Donors have pledged three billion dollars to rebuild Sri Lanka, twice the amount the government says it needs. But only a fraction of this has been received because of the delay in setting up the joint mechanism.