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Sri Lankan president, opposition leader discuss constitutional reform

11 July 2010 01:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his rival opposition leader Ranil Wickremasinghe met here Saturday for talks on the islandâ€™s constitutional reform, officials said, APA reports Xinhua News Agency.

"I met President Rajapaksa this morning to discuss constitutional reforms. I told him that my party would support any change that would be people oriented," Wickremesinghe, who is the leader of the United National Party (UNP), told reporters.

The president assured Wickremasinghe that he would discuss the matter with the main opposition UNP and other parties on the government constitutional amendment proposals before it is brought to parliament, officials from the Department of Government Information said.

Rajapaksa who won his second term in January wants to change the constitutional bar of not allowing an incumbent to run a third term.

The joint opposition has vowed to stop Rajapaksa from taking a third term.

The government however is yet to make public the proposals to change the present constitution adopted in 1978.

A political package to address the minority concerns with the end to the long drawn-out separatist war is expected to be incorporated in the proposed amendments.