COLOMBO (AP) – A government official says Sri Lanka's president has dissolved the country's parliament setting the stage for new elections.

The official says President Mahinda Rajapaksa issued the order Tuesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
The elections commissioner now needs to set a date for the vote.
The decision comes a day after the military arrested Rajapaksa's main challenger in the country's presidential poll held last month. According to official results, Rajapaksa won that election by a landslide.
However, the opposition has refused to accept the defeat of their candidate, former army chief Sarath Fonseka. The opposition called Tuesday for countrywide protests after Fonseka was arrested Monday.
Gen. Fonseka last year led government troops in their crushing defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels. Some analysts said the arrest, which comes ahead of parliamentary elections, appears to have been aimed at preventing Fonseka from participating as planned.
Fonseka's wife Anoma Fonseka said the former army chief has been cut off from family and friends and is being held at a secret location, though the government denied that.
The government has accused Fonseka of trying to topple the government and kill the president. Fonseka has denied these charges.
After announcing Monday that Fonseka would face a court martial on sedition charges, the government heaped more accusations on him. A statement Tuesday said the former army chief's reported call for anyone who committed war crimes during the conflict to be prosecuted showed he was “hell-bent on betraying the gallant armed forces of Sri Lanka.”
More than 7,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the fighting that crushed the rebels last spring. Human rights groups have accused the military, which was led by Fonseka at the time, of shelling hospitals and heavily populated civilian areas during the fighting, and the rebels of holding the local population as human shields.
One-time allies, Fonseka and President Mahinda Rajapaksa were both considered heroes by Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority for crushing the Tigers. However, their relationship deteriorated after hostilities ended.
Photo: Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapaksa gestures during a meeting with the international media in Colombo January 27, 2010. (Reuters photo) -