COLOMBO, Sept 16 (AFP) - Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga has pulled out of a United Nations AIDS conference after a row with the prime minister over who will address the general assembly, officials said Tuesday.
Kumaratunga wrote to Secretary General Kofi Annan saying that she will not attend the conference this month after failing to secure a time slot to address the UN General Assembly, her spokesman Janadasa Peiris said.
The president is in an uneasy cohabitation arrangement since her party lost the December 2001 parliamentary elections to the party of her rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.
Wickremesinghe is due to address the general assembly, a privilege Kumaratunga wanted for herself, arguing that she as executive head of state should have been given priority by the UN.
However, in her latest letter to the UN, Kumaratunga said she looked forward to welcoming Annan to Sri Lanka later next month.
The president and the prime minister are at loggerheads over the handling of the island's Norwegian-backed peace process.
Kumaratunga has accused peace broker Norway and the country's main financial backer Japan of over stepping their brief while Wickremesinghe has sought greater international involvement in the island's quest for peace.
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