End power struggle

Sri Lanka's president yesterday appealed to his prime minister to end a bitter power struggle and said the coalition government had failed to deliver promised reforms.

But Maithripala Sirisena suffered a new blow when 16 of his MPs joined the opposition.

Sirisena told parliament that the coalition partners should commit to a reform agenda to revive the island nation emerging from a decades-long ethnic war that claimed more than 100,000 lives.

"This is not a time for parties to engage in a power struggle," Sirisena said after opening a new session of parliament.

"Although we formed a coalition government in August 2015, we still have not politically matured to accept and work within this reality. Consensus government is still a foreign concept to us."

He urged the government dominated by PM Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party to work towards ethnic reconciliation to rebuild the country.

Tamil rebels who fought for independence for the island's ethnic minority were crushed in a military offensive that ended in May 2009.

Sirisena said the government must ensure a permanent political solution so that the nation of 21 million people does not return to war.