CBK knows little, says nothing
President Chandrika Kumaratunga wrote on Friday to Japanese Ambassador S. Otsuka declining a request to give a video-taped message for tomorrow's Tokyo aid conference, saying she knew very little about it.

Complaining that she had not been briefed either by the Prime Minister or the Finance Ministry about conference details including the terms of the loans to be pledged, the President, however, wished the conference well if it was the usual aid meetings she used to attend.

The letter to the ambassador coincided with her refusal to give Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe a last-minute appointment for a conference briefing session hours before he emplaned for Tokyo on Thursday night.

On Tuesday, the Prime Minister met President Kumaratunga's Foreign Affairs advisor Lakshman Kadirgamar for informal discussions and exchange of ideas.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kadirgamar has written to the Norwegian Ambassador in Colombo asking him to confirm or deny a remark reportedly made by the Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Bondevic in Tokyo last week that the UNF Government of Prime Minister Wickremesinghe should proceed to work out a negotiated settlement despite differences with the President.

"I have heard the President's statement but it is the government that is leading the process... So I hope they will move forward," the Norwegian Prime Minister was quoted as saying.

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