Sri Lanka's major coalition partner JVP or the People's Liberation Front quitted the government on Thursday due to its stiff opposition to the controversial joint deal with the Tamil Tigers for tsunami relief co-ordination in the north and east.

JVP leader Somawansa Amarasinghe told a press conference that since the deadline of June 15 passed and its request of giving up the joint mechanism was not accepted by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, it decided to leave the government.

Amarasinhe said the ministers from the JVP will submit their resignations to President Kumaratunga later Thursday.

He also said after leaving the government they would look to form other alliances with other parties as their concerns raised with Kumaratunga had "fallen on deaf ears and autocratic eyes."

With the JVP's decision to quit the government has been reduced to a minority in the 225 member parliament plunging the country into a period of political uncertainty.

The JVP controlled 39 seats in the government strength of 116 seats but the main opposition United National Party has said that they were not interested in making political capital out of the situation.

Amerasinghe said Kumaratunga was isolated in her decision making with her Freedom Party which is being sharply divided on the issue.

He did not rule out the possibility of JVP returning to the alliance but said they were yet to hear from the "other party".

The JVP gave a deadline of June 15 to Kumaratunga to give up her plan to implement a joint mechanism with the Tigers, and they dubbed the mechanism as one which would confer legitimacy to a terrorist group.

Source: Xinhua