President seeks unity government

Sri Lanka's new president Ranil Wickremesinghe has formally invited MPs to join an all-party unity government to revive the bankrupt economy by undertaking painful reforms, his office said yesterday.

Wickremesinghe took office earlier this month after public anger over the island nation's worst economic crisis forced his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and quit.

"I would like to get all the parties together and go on that journey as well as to form an all-party government," Wickremesinghe was quoted as telling in a meeting Saturday with the influential monks of the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy.

He has written to all lawmakers asking them to join a unity government.

A former opposition MP, Wickremesinghe, 73, took up the premiership for the sixth time in May after Rajapaksa's elder brother Mahinda resigned.

Wickremesinghe went onto become the president after Gotabaya escaped on July 9 when tens of thousands of protesters angry at the economic crisis stormed the presidential palace.

Sri Lanka's 22 million people have endured months of lengthy blackouts, record inflation and shortages of food, fuel and medicines. Since late last year, the country has run out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports. In April, Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt and opened bailout talks with the International Monetary Fund.

Wickremesinghe told monks that the economy would decline further this year with a contraction of 7.0 percent, but expected a recovery next year.