He added that the partnership between the two parties had been sealed without the consent of large number of PA stalwarts. "This proves democracy within the party is dead," the former PA strongman asserted.

The PA and the JVP yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding whereby the two parties will unite to fight the government on the ceasefire agreement, the cost of living, privatization and other issues.

A mass demonstration in this regard will be organized by the two partners on March 10th, in order to pressurize the government into backing down on some of its new reforms and proposed federal concept for the north and east. Published: Wed Feb 26 10:30:32 EST 2003

``The prospects of peace are a great deal better today than it has ever been,'' Constitutional Affairs Minister Gamini Peiris said. ``We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.'' However, the insurgents said the peace process, which generated much optimism at the outset, is loosing steam.

``One long year on, this (optimism) has largely evaporated to be replaced by cynicism at the best and outright disillusionment at worst,'' the Tamil Guardian newspaper, considered a voice of the insurgents, said in an editorial. It blamed the disillusionment on the ``slow pace of reconstruction and rehabilitation'' and large numbers of people that still remain displaced.

Meanwhile, authorities were forced to change the venue for high-profile meetings with Tamil rebels after their representatives insisted on attending with armed bodyguards in contravention of the terms of the truce, officials said Wednesday. The two-day meeting commencing Thursday, to discuss the reconstruction of the war-shattered island will now take place in a rebel-held northern town and not in the government-held east as earlier planned.

Under the truce, government soldiers and Tamil rebels bearing arms are prohibited from entering each other's territory. Published: Wed Feb 26 23:53:09 EST 2003