COLOMBO -- Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has opened talks with a Marxist party on an electoral pact in a bid to sack her government and win fresh elections, party officials said Sunday.

Kumaratunga, who is in an uneasy cohabitation arrangement with the 13-month-old administration of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, warned last week she may dismiss the government.

She has held closed-door talks with the Marxist JVP, or the People's Liberation Front, on a possible new alliance.

Neither side has announced details of the discussions, but party officials said a pact could follow.

"The president is confident that an alliance with the JVP will be good for the party," said a leader in Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA), Alavi Maulana.

Maulana, also the governor of the western province, said Wickremesinghe's government had failed to tackle the rising cost of living which was fuelling social unrest.

Seniors in Kumaratunga's party said she believed the JVP, which is the third largest party with 16 out of the 225 seats in Parliament, and her PA could return to power if they contest polls together.

Wickremesinghe currently has a slender two-seat majority in the assembly.

Under the proportional representation system, the largest single party in a each district gets a bonus seat, an advantage Wickremesinghe's party had at the December 2001 polls as the leftist vote was divided between the JVP and the PA.

Kumaratunga's PA has previously had agreements with the JVP. In October 2001 when it was in power it staved off a threat by Wickremesinghe's United National Party with a prop from the JVP.

However, that administration collapsed in the face of mass defections to the UNP. The shift prompted her to call a snap election despite pledges not to go for an early vote the country could ill afford as it was facing a recession.

The PA lost the parliamentary elections in December 2001 and Wickremesinghe came to power.

The first shots in the latest crisis were fired last week by Kumaratunga who issued a thinly veiled threat to dismiss Wickremesinghe's cabinet over the handling of the talks with Tamil Tiger rebels.

Wickremesinghe's government can in theory remain in office until December 2007, but Kumaratunga, whose own six years are up in December 2005, can cut short the life of Parliament. (AFP)